City of Iliaster
by Count Morningstar
Summary: An AU based on the Synchro Dimension. After being arrested by security, Yugo wakes up in a strange room and emerges later to find the city of Neo Domino to be totally transformed and overrun by a robot police force. Left totally alone, Yugo struggles to find his childhood friend, Rin and find out what happened to the city he once called home.
1. Pyramid

**Introduction:** This next story is a passion project of mine that I've been developing off and on for the past couple of years. Yugo became my favorite character from ARC-V almost immediately after I first saw him in the anime, and his Speedroid monster made me fall in love with Synchro Monsters again. Later around the time when ARC-V began its second season and we learned more about Yugo's backstory, I knew I wanted to do a major fanfic featuring him and Rin. I put a lot of time into developing the concept for this story, and now I'm thrilled to be finally getting it off the ground. I'd like to take this moment to thank the following authors on this site, as they were a big help in getting this story to where it is now.

~Firebolt the Blazing Saint

~DragonKnight15

~x Chloe Price x

Now without further delay, I'm pleased to present this thrilling AU based on the Synchro Dimension of ARC-V.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

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Chapter 1: Pyramid

In the darkness of unconsciousness, Yugo Sakaki began to hear what sounded like a feint beeping noise in the distance. The noise became louder and louder as slowly woke up. When the fourteen-year-old turbo duelist finally opened his eyes, he was greeted only by more darkness. With his gloved hands, Yugo could feel some sort of curved door in front of him. It soon became clear to him that he was standing upright in some sort of cylindrical metal coffin. Frightened that he might've been somehow buried alive, Yugo frantically began to pound on the door and called for someone, anyone to let him out. After a few short moments of pounding though, the door to his casket suddenly opened on its own with an upward motion.

Yugo staggered out of the metal coffin feeling groggy, like he had just woken up from being drugged. He had only taken a couple of steps when the lights of the room he was in suddenly turned on, blinding him for a few moments. When Yugo's green eyes finally adjusted to the light, he saw a red-orange office chair on wheels only a few short feet from where he was and immediately sat down in it. As Yugo slowly began to shake the cobwebs from his brain, he started to take in his surroundings. He was in a small room with walls that were painted battleship-grey. To Yugo's right were several computer screens that were connected to a small terminal on a table that projected out from the wall. The metal coffin that Yugo had emerged from was built into the wall he was now facing, and built into the opposite wall across the room was a red metal door.

As the fog finally started to lift from Yugo's mind, he desperately tried to figure out how he had ended up in that coffin. The last thing that Yugo remembered was going to confront the newest champion of the city's Friendship Cup tournament, Jack Atlas. Jack was supposed to have faced Yugo's mentor in the final duel of the tournament, but when the time of the duel finally came, Yugo's mentor failed to show up. Yugo suspected that Jack had something to do with his mentor's mysterious disappearance, so at the first opportunity he had called Jack out and challenged him to a duel for answers. Jack had agreed to duel Yugo at a secret location in the Commons, but when Yugo arrived all he found was a squadron of City Security officers waiting for him. Yugo had of course tried to escape, but was captured in a matter of seconds. The last thing that Yugo remembered was one of the officers knocking him out with a punch to the jaw as he was being taken away.

It seemed clear to Yugo both now and at the time of his arrest that Jack has lured him into a trap, but that didn't answer the question of where he was. As Yugo glanced around the room, he saw a large full-length mirror on the wall to his left and got up to take a better look at himself. The young duelist was still wearing his mostly white riding suit, and there were no yellow markings on his face. The lack of facial markings was what surprised Yugo the most, as it was standard procedure to tattoo criminals of the city with a special ink that acted as a tracking device. If Yugo was indeed in a prison, it was unlike any prison facility he had ever heard of.

Yugo went over to the door of what he was starting to think was his cell to see if anyone would answer if he knocked. As soon as Yugo came near the door though, it opened automatically. The young duelist cautiously peeked his head through the doorway and found the room beyond it to be dark and empty of people. After a moment, Yugo stepped through the door and a spotlight began to shine down from the ceiling on a distinct white, black and gold motorcycle. Yugo instantly recognized the vehicle as his D-Wheel.

As Yugo came closer to his vehicle, he soon realized that the room he was in was some sort of garage, for on his right was an upward incline that led to a large metal door. It quickly became clear to Yugo that he was not in any sort of jail. Though where he was and why the security force had placed him there was still a total mystery. Yugo decided to put that mystery aside and decided to do a standard maintenance check of his D-Wheel. He was relieved to find that the cycle was still in proper condition, and that his deck had been placed with it without a single card missing.

Once Yugo finished checking over his gear, he quickly found the switch on the wall that theoretically opened the door. The door opened on command, and Yugo promptly put on his helmet and mounted his D-Wheel. Yugo sped up the ramp and out the garage door, emerging from the side of a building neighboring a vacant lot that was between two other large buildings. After cutting across the lot, the young turbo duelist made it onto the street. It was then that Yugo was finally able to get a clear look at where he was, and what he saw totally stunned and baffled him.

It seemed to Yugo that he was still in his hometown of Neo Domino City. The skyline of titled white hexagonal pillars with mansions and skyscrapers on top were unmistakable. Yet the bottom level of the city, the slums where Yugo grew up known as the Commons, were totally transformed. Most of the rundown buildings lining the sides of the street had either been renovated or totally replaced with newer and more technologically advanced buildings. The streets themselves were also totally clean or pristine, without even a trace of litter or any of the metal barrels that people would light on fire at night to keep warm. There were even cars on parked on the sides of the road, and they all looked as though they had come off the showroom floor. For a moment it almost seemed to Yugo like he was up in that skyline of pillars knows as the Tops, only everything was colored white.

The other striking difference from the slums that Yugo originally knew were the people he saw out walking around. They all appeared to be clean and well fed. Some of them were even carrying briefcases as if they were on their way to work, which was even more strange since most of the people living in the Commons were either unemployed or at least didn't have a job that required a briefcase. The crumbling slums where Yugo had grown up had somehow become a bustling metropolis overnight. One strange thing about all these people that Yugo quickly noticed though was that they all walked around with blank expressions on their faces and wore the same outfit, consisting of a buttoned white jacket and a pair of white slacks. Yugo also noticed that everyone seemed to have some kind of large grey earpiece covering the left ear.

Yugo stopped his D-Wheel at the first street corner he came to and dismounted to find someone he could ask about what happened to the city. A brown-haired young man who appeared to be in his early twenties walked right past Yugo without even seeming to notice him.

"Hey!" Yugo spoke as he grabbed the young man's arm. "Can you tell me what's going on here? What happened to the Commons?"

The young man merely turned to look at Yugo with a cold stare. A second later, the street had suddenly become eerily quiet. When Yugo looked, he saw that everyone who had been out walking on the street had stopped and was giving him the same cold stare. Yugo quickly let go of the man and slowly started to back away towards his D-Wheel. He didn't know what he did wrong, but at that moment it seemed to Yugo like everyone was about to gang up on him.

Suddenly Yugo heard the all too familiar sound of a siren from a security D-Wheel coming towards him. Without a moment's hesitation, he got back onto his D-Wheel and rode off towards the nearest onramp to the highway. The last thing that Yugo needed at that moment was to be arrested again, and his chances of losing his new pursuer was to get out of that part of the city and onto the open road. As Yugo neared the onramp, he glanced back to get a better look at the officer that was chasing him. What he saw when he looked back totally startled him.

The security officer who was riding after him looked to be some sort of robot. Its body was mainly silver in color, with black hands and pronounced black ball joints. On the front of the machine's flat chest was a black symbol that looked like a figure eight. The robot's head had a white helmet with a black vertical stripe down the middle. Meanwhile its face consisted of a single red eye that went back and forth on a thin black screen, and a chrome faceplate that looked like the upside down grill of an old car from the 1930s. The D-Wheel that the robot rode upon was much more sleek than the D-Wheels used by duel chasers that Yugo had encountered in the past, and was colored white and black with two red siren lights on the rear end.

"What the hell?" Yugo exclaimed. "What kind of security officer are you?"

"This unit is designated as XJ-72," the robot answered in an inflectionless mechanical voice. "Its duty is to eliminate all rogue elements that may threaten this society, and as of this moment has been charged with your capture. Surrender, and you will not be harmed. Resistance is futile."

"Like hell!" Yugo told the machine. "The only way you'll arrest me is if you chase me down! And there's no way that's gonna happen!"

"Attempts at negotiation have failed," XJ-72 stated. "Initiating duel."

Just as Yugo and his pursuer got onto the highway, the screen of his D-Wheel showed the image of a Field Spell card.

"Duel initiated," announced the female computer voice of Yugo's vehicle. "Activating Action Field, Crossover Accel."

Suddenly the highway system began to change and certain roads were cut off to prevent traffic from entering the lane that Yugo and XJ-72 were to use for their duel. Black hexagonal pillars rose out of the ground and raised other sections of highway for the two duelists to use. As the other sections of road connected, an explosion of light went off in the sky and caused several cards to rain down onto the road. Cursing, Yugo sped ahead and turned onto the corner to the assigned duel lane before XJ-72 could.

"My turn!" Yugo announced. "I set one card on the field! Then I summon Speedroid Den-Den Daiko Duke in Defense Mode!"

Materializing in the air beside Yugo's D-Wheel was a short humanoid robot wearing a blue military-style uniform with lavender sleeves and pant legs, yellow epilates, and a red sash with gold trim. On his hands were white gloves with thick blue and orange rings around the wrists, and covering his feet were yellow shoes with points on the front shaped like lightning bolts. The small robot also had on a long red cape with a collar that covered the lower half of his face. He also had on a large hat with a giant yellow plume on the top and a small yellow lightning bolt-shaped blade on the side. The robot had long dark-brown curled hair, and the only part of his face that could be seen was a large blue eye. In his left hand was large blue staff with a thin yellow stripes and a large white and red drumhead on the top. Connected to the sides of the drumhead by thin red strings were two red balls with long tufts of yellow hair attached.

"That ends my turn!" Yugo announced.

XJ-72 drew its first card. "For its first action, this unit shall summon Meklord Army of Wisel in Attack Mode."

Appearing in the air next to the security droid's D-Wheel was a slender white humanoid robot with a thin grey neck and midsection. It had a large white almost dome-shaped head with a black screen for a face. On this screen were three lines that formed the appearance of a face with angry expression. The robot's right forearm was almost totally covered by a thick greenish-grey shield. Meanwhile its left arm ended with what looked like a thin white blaster.

Yugo was quite surprised by the appearance of XJ-72's monster. He was expecting the robot to use a Goyo deck like the ones commonly used by Neo Domino's human security officers, but this was something quite different.

"For its next action, this unit activates the Spell card, Deployment of the Meklords," XJ-72 continued. "When a Meklord Army monsters is on the field, Deployment of the Meklords enables the summoning of two other Meklord Army monsters with the same name from either the hand or deck. XJ-72 summons two copies of Meklord Army of Wisel from the deck."

Two portals of blue light appeared to the left and right of the Wisel Army robot. From these portals emerged two other Army of Wisel machines identical in every way from the first.

"Each copy of Meklord Army of Wisel gains 100 additional ATK points for every other Meklord monster on the field," XJ-72 continued. "As a result, the ATK of each Army of Wisel monster is increased from 1800 to 2000. Initiating Battle Phase. The first Army of Wisel monster attacks Den-Den Daiko Duke."

The original Wisel Army monster charged forward as a blade of blue energy extended from the blaster-like device on its left arm. The enemy machine slashed Den-Den Daiko Duke across the chest, causing to explode with a flash of fire and smoke. Yugo's life points dropped from 4000 to 3000.

"Each Meklord Army of Wisel monster is able to inflict piercing damage when attacking a monster in Defense Mode," XJ-72 revealed. "The second Army of Wisel monster now initiates a direct attack."

"In activate my Trap card, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Yugo announced. "This card negates your monster attack and sets itself back on the field!"

Just as the second of the white robots came in striking distance of Yugo, a wooden cross that was decorated with an old helmet, gloves and scarf appeared in front of Yugo and blocked the robot's attack with a transparent spherical barrier. After the robot's attack was repelled, the scarecrow of junk disappeared and the large card representing Yugo's trap set itself back on the field.

"Your resistance is pointless," XJ-72 declared. "The third Army of Wisel monster initiates a direct attack."

A few feet ahead on the road, Yugo spotted a multicolored bubble containing a card. As the third Army of Wisel monster chased after him, Yugo sped up his D-Wheel and tilted to the right to scoop the card up.

Yugo managed to grab as the white robot chasing him came in striking distance. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This card negates your monster's attack!"

Just as the Wisel Army monster was about to swing down its energy blade, Yugo tilted his D-Wheel to the other side and narrowly avoided the attack.

"Calculating countermeasures…" XJ-72 spoke. "This unit sets one card on the field and end its turn."

Yugo drew his next card. "Because I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

Materializing next to Yugo's D-Wheel was a cluster of thirteen red metal tops with yellow spikes on the top and bottom. The tops all seemed to be connected together somehow like a worm or centipede. On the sides of the front top were two black and yellow blades that acted as a pair of pincers.

"When Terrortop is summoned to the field, I can add another Speedroid monster to my hand," Yugo continued. "I add Red-Eyed Dice to my hand using Terrortop's effect. Next I activate the effect of Den-Den Daiko Duke! By banishing Den-Den Daiko from the Graveyard, I can special summon another Speedroid Tuner from my hand or Graveyard. I special summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

Appearing on the track next to Terrortop was a blue pyramid-shaped object with yellow tips and a red eye-like mark decorating each side. Orbiting around this pyramid were three black metallic spheres that were all giving off a yellow aura.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level three Terrortop for a level six Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice glowed orange and changed into three rings made of green light. The rings encircled Terrortop and converted the cluster of tops into three white stars.

"Magical sword in the form of a cross! Use your power to rend all enemies!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level six! Hi-Speedroid Kendama!"

The stars flashed and changed into a horizontal beam of white light. In seconds the light faded to reveal an ornate almost spacecraft-like object with a long blue lance-like object on the front of a dark-blue spherical core. On the top and bottom were two large round blue handle-like projections. Hovering next to the right side of the ship was a large black and gold object shaped like half of a sphere. Meanwhile attached to the left side of the ship was something that appeared to be a small blue robot with red eyes and a yellowish faceplate, and connected to the left side of the robot's body was another black and gold half-sphere like the one attached to the right side of the ship.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Yugo continued. "Because I have a Wind monster on the field, I can special summon Speedroid Taketomborg from my hand!"

Appearing next to Kendama was a small blue and yellow aircraft that immediately began to change shape, taking the form of a robot with a blue body and a head with two large dragonfly-like eyes. On the top of the robot's head were two long yellow blade-like horns. The four wings that the robotic aircraft once had changed into flat arms and legs, with the limbs on the right side of its body being yellow and red while the limbs on its right side were yellow and green.

"Next, I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!" Yugo announced.

Appearing next to Taketomborg was a metallic yellow cube resembling a die. On the front side of the cube was a large red and white eye-like marking resembling the number one, while the other five sides of its body had smaller red and white markings to represent the other numbers of the die. Orbiting around the cube were six black metallic spheres that each gave off a red aura.

"When Red-Eyed Dice is summoned to the field, I can change the level of another Speedroid monster I control to a level from one to six," Yugo continued. "I change Taketomborg's level from three to four! I now tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level four Taketomborg for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice changed into a single ring of green light and immediately encircled Taketomborg, changing the dragonfly robot into four white stars.

"Overflowing with the throb of life, soul of the sword's dance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level five! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of light, fading to reveal another spacecraft-like object resembling a large red and yellow saber that had a large thruster on the back in place of a handle. Attached to the top of this saber towards the hilt was the upper body of a red and grey robot that carried a sword in each hand.

"I activate Kendama's effect!" Yugo announced. "By banishing a Machine-Type monster from my Graveyard, Kendama lets me inflict 500 points of damage. I banish Takatomborg from the Graveyard!"

Kendama fired a beam of blue light from the tip of his lance at the security droid. The blast struck XJ-72 in the chest and dropped its life points to 3500.

"And now I'm gonna wipe out all your monsters!" Yugo declared.

"Your strategy is in error," XJ-72 told him. "Only the 2200 ATK points of Hi-Speedroid Kendama surpasses the ATK of this unit's Army of Wisel monsters. The ATK points of Hi-Speedroid Chanbara are only at 2000. Furthermore, this unit's monsters outnumber yours by three to two."

"You're right about that, but Chanbara can make two attacks during each turn," Yugo revealed. "Plus whenever Chanbara does battle, his ATK goes up by 200 points! Time to send your monsters to the scrapheap! Kendama, attack the Wisel monster in the middle!"

"Activating Trap, Meklord Destruct Protocol!" XJ-72 announced. "When a Machine-Type monster is attacked, Meklord Destruct Protocol immediately ends the Battle Phase. The card then destroys one Meklord Army monster its user controls."

Just as Kendama moved in to skewer the first Wisel Army monster with his lance, the white robot exploded with a flash of fire and smoke. After a few moments, the smoke cleared and a new and much larger robot was in the destroyed monster's place. It was white in color and had a humanoid build. The machine's legs were almost stilt-like and ended in points. Its head was shaped almost like a snake and its face was black with glowing red lines. A single slender blade was mounted on the robot's left forearm, while its right forearm was shaped almost like a shield. But what Yusei noticed about the machine was its torso. On the front of its spherical torso was a black window in the shape of an infinity symbol, and glowing inside its chest was a blue-green light.

"What the hell?" Yugo exclaimed. "Where did that monster come from?"

"Because a monster this unit controlled was destroyed by a card effect, it was able to special summon Meklord Emperor Wisel," XJ-72 explained.

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed. "I end my turn."

XJ-72 drew its next card. "For its first action this turn, this unit activates the Spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your set Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."

A twister of wind picked up on the road right next to Yugo's D-Wheel and shattered the large representation of his Trap card.

"Next, this unit summons Meklord Controller of Wisel in Attack Mode," XJ-72 continued.

Materializing on the track was a while spherical drone with two solar panels on the sides like the wings of a satellite, and a long white fin-shaped projection on its underside. On the front of the machine was a round black screen with red lines that formed an angry face like faces of the Wisel Army monsters. Right above the machine's face was a small rectangular green light.

"That monster has zero ATK points," Yugo observed with a quirked brow. "And you summoned it in Attack Mode?"

"Meklord Controller of Wisel cannot be selected as an attack target while Meklord Emperor Wisel is on the field," XJ-72 revealed. "Additionally, while Meklord Emperor Wisel is on the field, other monsters in the control of Wisel's user are unable to attack. However, while Meklord Controller of Wisel is on the field, Meklord Army monsters become able to attack and gain an additional 500 ATK points while Meklord Emperor Wisel is on the field. Furthermore, with the presence of Meklord Controller of Wisel on the field, the two remaining Army of Wisel monsters gain an additional 100 ATK, bring the total ATK of each one to 2600."

"Not good!" Yugo exclaimed.

"This unit now activates the primary effect of Meklord Emperor Wisel," XJ-72 announced. "Once per turn, Wisel can equip itself with a Synchro Monster the opponent controls. This unit selects Hi-Speedroid Kendama as the target of Wisel's effect."

Wisel's chest opened up and six cables of blue-green light launched out of it and wrapped themselves around Kendama. The cross-shaped robot was pulled towards Wisel and changed into blue-green energy as it was pulled into the humanoid robot's chest.

"Wisel gains the total ATK points of the monsters equipped to it through this effect," XJ-72 continued. "With Kendama now equipped to Wisel, its ATK points rise from 2500 to 4700. Meklord Emperor Wisel now attacks Hi-Speedroid Chanbara."

A flaming blue aura suddenly appeared around Wisel's sword arm and took the shape of Kendama. As Wisel loomed towards Chanbara, Yugo saw another bubble containing an Action Card up ahead on the road and sped up to grab it. The young turbo duelist scooped up the card just as Wisel moved in closer.

"I activate the Action Card, Encore!" Yugo announced. "With this card, I can activate the effect of another Action Card already in my Graveyard. I use Encore to replay the effect of Evasion!"

"Negative. This unit activates Wisel's secondary effect," XJ-72 announced. "Once per turn, Wisel can negate the effect of an opponent's Spell card and destroy it."

Wisel fired a beam of light from its face and struck the large representation of Yugo's Action Card, causing it to shatter to pieces. At the same time, Chanbara flew towards Wisel in a futile attempt to take down the enemy robot. Chanbara's ATK rose to 2200 as he moved in to strike, but Wisel cut the large blade of the sword-shaped robot in half, causing him to explode. The attack caused Yugo's life points to plummet to 500.

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed. "Because Chanbara was sent to the Graveyard, I can add one of my banished Speedroids to my hand. I choose to return Den-Den Daiko Duke to my hand with Chanbara's effect."

"Irrelevant," XJ-72 remarked. "This unit attacks directly with one of the remaining Army of Wisel monsters."

"I activate the effect of Tri-Eyed Dice!" Yugo announced. "By banishing Tri-Eyed Dice from the Graveyard, I can negate your monster's attack!"

Just as one of the Wisel Army monster charged in to strike Yugo with its energy blade, a ghostly image of Tri-Eyed Dice appeared on the track and shattered apart as the three black spheres orbiting it flew away and formed a triangular barrier of multicolored light in front of the young turbo duelist. The robot soldier's blade struck the barrier and was repelled. Afterwards, the barrier shattered to nothing.

"Your struggles are futile," XJ-72 declared. "The final Army of Wisel monster attacks you directly."

Yugo frantically looked around for another action card as the remaining robot soldier moved in for the kill. He quickly found another card contained in a bubble atop the wall on the left side of the track. With nothing to lose, Yugo drove his D-Wheel up the side of the wall. When Yugo reached the wall's edge, he quickly grabbed the card and turned his cycle so that he was launched into the air back towards the road.

"Activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Yugo quickly announced just as the Wisel soldier was about to strike.

The Wisel Army monster's blade missed and Yugo's D-Wheel landed with both wheels onto the pavement of the highway. Breathing a sigh of relief, Yugo continued to speed forward and turned the next corner to the right as the white robot fell back towards its master.

"This unit ends its turn," XJ-72 announced.

Yugo knew that he had ended up in a very difficult spot in this duel. With Meklord Emperor Wisel on the field, every Synchro Monster that he summoned would simply be absorbed just Kendama was an only add the machine emperor's power; every Synchro Monster that was, except for one. Unfortunately none of the few cards left in Yugo's hand could help him bring that monster out. His survival depended on the next draw.

Yugo drew his next card, and upon seeing what it was he smirked. "I summon Speedroid Double Yoyo in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on the road was a machine resembling a large remote controlled toy vehicle with two large green wheels on its sides. The midsection of the vehicle was grey and almost resembled a knight's helmet.

"When Double Yoyo is normal summoned to the field, I can use his effect to summon a level three or lower Speedroid from the Graveyard!" Yugo announced. "I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!"

The large yellow metal die reappeared on the track next to Double Yoyo.

"Because Red-Eyed Dice was just summoned to the field, I can change Double Yoyo's level from four to six!" Yugo continued. "I now tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level six Double Yoyo for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange before turning into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Double Yoyo and changed the two-wheeled machine into six white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal a large dragon covered in white and black cybernetic armor. The dragon's face was black with yellow eyes and a fanged mouth, and attached to the white armor from the dragon's snout was a long blue metal horn that went back, along with two smaller blue horns that had silver tips on the sides of its head. A piece of blue armor with two large grey spikes projecting from the bottom covered the dragon's chest. The beast's well-developed arms each had hands with six fingers tipped with black claws, and large pieces of blue and black armor covering its wrists. Attached to the dragon's upper arms were two artificial green transparent wings, and there were four more diamond-shaped wings attached to the dragon's waist. Its long tail was covered in segments of white and black armor that gave the appearance of stripes. In place of legs, the dragon had a pair of large blue and grey thrusters.

On the road up ahead, Yugo saw another bubble containing an Action Card. The young turbo duelist scooped the card up as he drove, and he smiled upon seeing what the card was. Everything that Yugo needed in order to win was now in place.

"I end my turn!" Yugo announced.

XJ-72 drew its next card. "For its next move, this unit activates Meklord Emperor Wisel's effect to equip it with Clear Wing Synchro Dragon."

"Big mistake! I activate Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's effect!" Yugo enthusiastically announced as Wisel's chest began to open up. "When a level five or higher monster is targeted by another monster's effect, Clear Wing negates that effect and destroys that monster! Dichromic Mirror!"

Just as the energy cables from Wisel's chest launched forward to snare Clear Wing, the dragon's lit up with circuit paths. Clear Wing roared and fired massive beams of light from his wings. The blast repelled Wisel's energy cables and kept on going right into the machine emperor's open chest, causing Wisel to explode with a massive flash of fire and smoke.

"Error! Error! Error!" XJ-72 repeated. "Unable to calculate countermeasure! Error!"

"When Clear Wing destroys a monster with its effect, he gains that monster's original ATK until the end of the turn. Which means that Clear Wing's ATK jumps from 2500 to 5000," Yugo continued. "Now I activate the Action Card, Road Rage Battle! When a monster on the field is destroyed by a card effect, Road Rage Battle switches all monsters on each side of the field to Attack Mode and begins the Battle Phase. Not only that, every monster belonging to the player whose turn it is has to attack this turn. And since I have no other monsters on the field, all of your monsters will have to attack Clear Wing!"

"Error! Negative! Error!" XJ-72 spoke as its neck began to give off blue electrical sparks. "The ATK points of each Army of Wisel monster have fallen to 2000 due to the absence of Meklord Emperor Wisel. Controller of Wisel has zero ATK points. Such an attack would be fatal to this unit's life points. Error!"

"Clear Wing! Send those robots to the junkyard where they belong!" Yugo commanded. "Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

As XJ-72's three remaining robots began to charge towards Clear Wing, the armored dragon rose up higher into the air and became enshrouded by a green whirlwind. Yugo's dragon roared as he flew back down towards the three Meklord monsters and crashed into them, shredding the machines to pieces with the twister surrounding its body. The pieces of the three robots exploded and XJ-72's life points crashed from 3500 to zero in an instant. With the duel finally over, Clear Wing vanished and both Yugo and his pursuer came to a stop on the road.

"Error! Error!" XJ-72 repeated as its head began to tremble. "Does not compute! Error! Error! ERROR!"

Suddenly XJ-72's head exploded, leaving nothing in its place but an exposed neck with flames and sparking wires.

A bewildered Yugo removed his helmet. "Holy crap! That guy really was a robot!"

As Yugo dismounted his D-Wheel and slowly began to approach the remains of the robot, he saw a beam of green light shoot up into the sky from the city below. The light vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. Yugo went over to the edge of the bridge to get a better look. With his duel over, the walls lining the sides of the highway had retracted and Yugo was able to get a clear view of the city. Out in the distance in the very center of Neo Domino was a gigantic white metal pyramid. On each side of the pyramid was a black symbol that resembled a figure eight, just like the symbol that was on XJ-72's chest. Suddenly another blast of green light shot from the top of that pyramid into the sky.

Yugo could also get a much clearer view of the Commons from where he was standing. The decaying slums where he grew up had been totally transformed; replaced with glistening white buildings that almost looked like they had come out of a sci-fi move. It was then that an alarming question had come to Yugo's mind. Just how long had he been asleep inside that metal coffin? For all he knew, it could've been years, perhaps even decades. Yugo had read a few sci-fi stories in the past, stories that had dealt with things like suspended animation; the kind of stories where the characters would be frozen in pods and wake up fifty years later. Yugo realized that the same thing could've just happened to him.

Yugo began to panic a bit as he tried to figure out what had happed to the world he knew. His first thoughts were of his childhood friend, Rin Akaba. Yugo wondered what had became of Rin after he had gotten arrested and if she existed in the world he now found himself in. For all Yugo knew, Rin could've been dead for the past hundred years while he was in that metal casket. At that moment, Yugo felt the most alone as he had ever felt in his entire life.

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed as he threw his helmet to the ground. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed my first attempt at writing an Action Turbo Duel. Incidentally, we won't be seeing any Fusion or Xyz Monsters in this story. AU or not, this story is based in the Synchro Dimension after all. Plus if there were characters who could use Fusion and Xyz Monsters, the Meklord decks used by the city's automated security force wouldn't be nearly as much as a threat.

Those of you reading may have also noticed that I've given Yugo and Rin last names in this story, something that the anime never did. The origin of Yugo's last name is self explanatory. As for Rin's last name, technically the Bracelet Girls are all related to Yuya's archrival, Reiji Akaba... along with one other major character from the anime.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	2. The Rise of Iliaster

**Author's Note:** I'd like to quickly thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I'm thrilled that this story seems to be getting off to a very good start.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 2: The Rise of Iliaster

As altered as the city had become, Yugo found that he still knew his way around it. With nowhere else to go, he had decided to go to the cheap apartment complex where he and Rin lived. Of course Yugo had no idea of the place was still standing, considering all of the renovations that had been done to the Commons by who or whatever had taken over the city. Even so, Yugo thought he would try going there anyway. He thought that at the very least, he might find some kind of clue about what happened to Rin.

To Yugo's relief, he found that the dilapidated apartment building that he and Rin called home was still standing. The building was not exactly glamorous, but then no building in the Commons was. It was a small two-story building that in another life might've been a cheap motel. There was a wooden deck on the front of the building that provided access to the doors on the second story. The building itself was concrete-grey, while the doors and the roof were orange. There was a small garage attached to the left side of the building, and in the yard out back was a large junkyard. In a strange way, Yugo was pleased that the crummy building had somehow escaped the massive renovations to the Commons.

Yugo parked his D-Wheel in the garage and took the duel disk with him as a precaution. After doing battle with that robot on the highway, Yugo thought he should be ready in case he encountered some other threat. After reaching his room on the first floor, Yugo breathed a sigh of relief when he found that his key to it still worked. He entered the room to find that the place was a bit of a mess. His bed was still made, but there were food wrappers scattered all over the floor and it looked like someone had rummaged through his dresser.

As Yugo surveyed the room, the thought occurred to him that Rin would kill him if she had seen his room in such a state. The thought saddened Yugo a bit, as Rin was likely dead as far as he new. After all, he might've been asleep in that metal coffin for a few hundred years. Of course as Yugo looked at his apartment, it seemed like it had not changed all that much. Sure the place was much dirtier than Yugo had left it, but it occurred to Yugo that his apartment would've been totally covered in dust and cobwebs if a few hundred years had passed.

Yugo didn't have much time to wonder about just how much time had gone by, as he suddenly heard movement in the neighboring room adjacent to his. That was the room that had originally belonged to Rin. Yugo went over to the door, and when he opened it is saw a short figure in the darkened room. Whoever it was noticed Yugo immediately and bolted out of the room through the door to the outside. The young turbo duelist immediately gave chase, following the intruder out to the yard behind the building.

When Yugo got to the yard, it seemed like the person who had been in Rin's room had vanished. He soon realized that the intruder was probably hiding in or around one of the huge piles of junk cluttering the yard.

"Hey!" Yugo called. "Whoever you are, come on out!"

As Yugo walked through the junkyard, a rusty old hubcap flew through the air towards his head. Yugo managed to duck out of the way at the last second, and the hubcap ended up hitting the rickety wooden fence behind him.

"Go away!" a voice called. "This is my hiding place! Get lost!"

"What's the big idea throwing junk at me like that?" an irritated Yugo asked. "You can really hurt someone like that, you know! Now come on out so I can see you!"

Stepping out from behind one of the piles of junk was a boy who looked to be about ten or twelve. He had long green hair tied back in a ponytail and yellowish-brown eyes. The boy's outfit consisted of a dirty white jacket with a pair of filthy white shorts, a blue t-shirt, and a pair of blue and white tennis shoes that looked as though they had seen better days. His face was dirty, and on his left arm was a blue and white duel disk.

"A kid?" Yugo observed. "Who are you?"

"I don't have to tell you anything, banana-head!" the boy shot back, referring to the large yellow swirl in Yugo's otherwise blue hair.

"Hey! My name is Yugo!" the young duelist furiously protested.

"As if I care!" the boy told him as he turned on his duel disk. "Now get lost! Otherwise I'm gonna send out my monsters to clobber you!"

"You shouldn't use solid vision holograms to attack people," Yugo told him. He took a breath to try and regain his composure. "Look, how 'bout this? Since we both have duel disks, let's have a duel. If you win, I'll leave and never come back. But if I win, I get to stay. Is that fair?"

"…Fine," the boy agreed. "It's not like a loser like you has a chance of beating me anyway."

With that, Yugo activated his duel disk and both he and the boy drew their opening hands.

"I'm going first!" the boy declared. "I summon Morphtronic Celfon in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on the boy's side of the battlefield was a giant yellow flip phone that immediately unfolded into a humanoid robot. The top half of the phone had split in half down the screen and became very long pieces of shoulder armor. Its metallic grey head had red eyes, a yellow dome on top, and two long antennas on the sides. The buttons for the numbers one through six were on the robot's chest, while the numbers seven through nine had ended up on its waist. The remaining keys for the phone had wound up on the machine's knees, with the key for the number zero having been split in half.

"I activate Celfon's effect!" the boy announced. "Once per turn while he's in Attack Mode, Celfon can dial a random number. Whatever number Celfon dials, I take that number of cards from my deck and special summon one Morphtronic monster from those cards. The rest are shuffled into the deck."

The numbers on Celfon's chest began to light up one at a time and cycled quickly from one to six. After a few moments the lights began to slow down until at last stopping on the number four.

"Okay! I pick up the top four cards of my deck," the boy continued, "and from those cards… I summon the Tuner monster, Morphtronic Remoten in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on the field next to Celfon was a large white device resembling an iPod. A set of small limbs extended from the sides of the iPod, and a pair of green circles representing eyes showed up on the machine's black screen.

"I return the other three cards I picked up with Celfon's effect back to the deck," the boy announced. "Next I tune the level three Remoten into the level one Celfon for a level four Synchro Summon!"

The eyes on Remoten's screen became replaced with the word, Tuning just before the iPod robot changed into three rings made of green light. The rings then encircled Celfon and changed it into a single white star.

"Guardian of sound from the modern age! Strike forth and play the song of justice!" the boy chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level four! Morphtronic Warrior Stereon!"

The star flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the sky. The ray of light soon faded to reveal a giant dark-grey boom box with two large speakers on the sides. On the front of the machine was the cover for a tray to accommodate multiple CDs along with a small control panel. The speakers expanded outward and a pair of box-like forearms ending with black hands extended from the bottom of them. Meanwhile, a pair of long legs attached to a box-like waist and a cylindrical silver lower body lowered down out of the stereo's core. A black dome-shaped head with a red visor and silver faceplate rose out of the top of the machine to complete its transformation.

"That ends my turn!" the boy announced. "Your move, banana-head."

"I told you, my name is Yugo!" the speed duelist protested as he drew his first card. "You're really gonna get it now! I summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

Yugo's blue three-eyed pyramid materialized on the battlefield.

"Next, since I have a Wind monster on the field, I special summon Speedroid Taketomborg!" Yugo continued.

The toy aircraft monster appeared on the field next to Tri-Eyed Dice and immediately changed into its robot form.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level three Taketomborg for a level six Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange before changing into three rings of green light. The rings encircled Taketomborg and transformed it into three white stars.

"Magical sword in the form of a cross! Use your power to rend all enemies!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level six! Hi-Speedroid Kendama!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of light that expanded outward. In seconds the ray of light faded to reveal Yugo's blue spacecraft-like robot.

"I activate Kendama's effect!" Yugo announced. "I banish Taketomborg from the Graveyard to inflict 500 points of damage!"

With that, Kendama fired a beam of blue light from the tip of its lance at the boy. The boy crossed his arms as an attempt to block the attack, but his life points still fell to 3500.

"Kandama, attack Morphtronic Warrior Stereon!" Yugo commanded. "High-Speed Lance!"

"I activate Stereon's effect!" the boy announced as Kendama sped across the battlefield. "When Stereon is attacked, I can change his battle position! Stereon switches from Attack to Defense Mode!"

Stereon quickly changed back to his original boom box form as Kendama came near.

"Your monster may be in Defense Mode now, but it still only has 2000 DEF!" Yugo pointed out. "Plus Kendama is able to inflict piercing damage!"

"Maybe, but when Stereon is attacked while in Defense Mode, it lowers the ATK of a monster attacking it by the number of Morphtronics in my Graveyard times 200 points during the battle!" the boy revealed. "I have two Morphtronics in my Graveyard right now, which means Kendama's ATK drops to 1800!"

Just as Kendama was about to strike, Stereon hit him with a loud blast of rock music from his speakers. The sound blast repelled Kandama and knocked him back to Yugo's side of the field. At the same time, Yugo's life points dropped to 3800.

"Not so tough now, are ya banana-head?" the boy taunted.

"Dammit, quit getting my name wrong!" Yugo protested. "I keep telling you, my name is Yugo!"

"Like I care!" the boy shot back.

"You little…" Yugo spoke before grumbling something under his breath. "I set one card on the field and end my turn."

The boy drew his next card. "First I switch Stereon back to Attack Mode!"

On cue, the large stereo changed back into its robot form.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Foolish Burial Goods!" the boy continued. "With this card, I can send one Spell or Trap card from my deck to the Graveyard. The card I choose to dump is the Equip Spell, Swiss Army Wonder Tool! Now I summon the Tuner monster, Morphtronic Scopen in Attack Mode!"

A giant microscope materialized on the field next to Stereon. As soon as it appeared, the microscope's base unfolded into a pair of legs. At the same time, a pair of grey cable-like arms ending with thin brass pincers emerged from the object's sides.

"I activate Scopen's effect!" the boy announced. "Once per turn while its in Attack Mode, Scopen lets me special summon a level four Morphtronic monster from my hand. I special summon Morphtronic Boomboxen in Attack Mode!"

Appearing next to Scopen was a giant red boom box that was of a much older model than Stereon's original form. Upon its arrival, the boom box unfolded into a more humanoid shape, with its tape deck remaining on its chest. A red dome-shaped head with two purple eyes emerged from the top of the machine.

"I tune the level three Scopen into the level four Boomboxen for a level seven Synchro Summon!" the boy announced.

Scopen's body flashed orange before changing into three rings made of green light. The rings encircled Boomboxen and transformed the older stereo robot into four white stars.

"Abandoned guardian from a forgotten age! Be revived here and now to defend world peace!" the boy chanted. Synchro Summon! Awaken! Level seven! Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the sky and expanded outward. After a few moments the pillar of light faded to reveal a large yellow and grey mechanical dragon. The dragon's eyes were red, but while the right one was lit up, its left eye was cracked and burnt out. The yellow armor covering the dragon's torso, hips and shoulders had a layer of rust at the top, and the silver part of the dragon's round right shoulder had a large crack in it. On the back of the robot were two pairs of wings, and the top right wing had a somewhat large section broken off at the end. The dragon's right arm ended with a large blue backhoe attachment caked with large spots of old dirt, and mounted on its left forearm was a green and grey jackhammer-like attachment that was tied on partly with large pieces of duct tape. The dragon's rust-covered grey tail ended with the spade of a shovel that was also caked in old dirt.

"I activate Junkyard Power Tool Dragon's effect!" the boy announced. "Once per turn, Junkyard Power Tool Dragon's effect lets me equip him with an Equip Spell from the Graveyard. I equip Power Tool with Swiss Army Wonder Tool!"

The backhoe attachment on the robot dragon's right arm began to glow red and change shape. When the light faded, an object resembling a large Swiss Army knife had replaced the backhoe scoop.

"Junkyard Power Tool Dragon gains 100 ATK points for each Equip Spell he's got," the boy continued. "So thanks to Wonder Tool, Power Tool's ATK goes up from 2300 to 2400! I also equip Power Tool with the Spell, Junk Barrage!"

Power Tool's body began to give off a feint green aura with the addition of the other Equip Spell.

"Now Power Tool's ATK goes up to 2500," the boy continued. "Plus now when Power Tool destroys a monster, Junk Barrage lets him inflict half that monster's ATK as damage. Finally, I activate the effect of Swiss Army Wonder Tool! Once per turn, Wonder Tool lets me send a random Equip Spell from my deck to the Graveyard. After that, Wonder Tool gains the effect of whatever card was sent to the Graveyard until the end of the turn."

A card popped out from the boy's deck towards the bottom. The boy looked at the card and smirked before placing it in the Graveyard slot of his duel disk.

"Tough luck for you, banana-head. The card that Wonder Tool sent to the Graveyard was Axe of Despair!" the boy revealed. "This means that Power Tool's ATK shoots up to 3500!"

Suddenly a large axe blade popped out of the Swiss Army knife on the mechanical dragon's arm. As soon as it emerged, the axe blade began to give off a sinister red aura.

"Holy crap!" Yugo exclaimed. "You actually have Axe of Despair? Where the hell did a kid like you get such a rare card?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the boy responded. "Now get ready to kiss your butt goodbye! Power Tool! Attack Kendama! Crafty Demolition!"

"Crap! I activate the effect of Tri-Eyed Dice!" Yugo announced. "By banishing it from the Graveyard, Tri-Eyed Dice lets me negate your monster's attack!"

Just as Power Tool moved in for the kill, a ghostly version of Tri-Eyed Dice shot down onto the field and changed into a multicolored triangular barrier. The mechanical dragon's axe blade struck the barrier but was repelled. When the attack ended, the barrier shattered to nothing.

"You may have stopped Power Tool's attack but I've still got one monster left!" the boy continued.

"Maybe, but Stereon only has 2000 ATK," Yugo pointed out. "It can't take down Kendama."

"Shows what you know! When Stereon is in Attack mode and attacks another monster, it gains 200 ATK points for each Morphtronic monster in my Graveyard during the battle!" the boy revealed. "I have four Morphtronic's in the Graveyard, which means Stereon's ATK rises to 2800! Let's go Stereon! Rock n' Roll Justice!"

"In that case, I activate my Trap, Dice Coliseum of Fate!" Yugo announced. "With this card, I target a monster on the field and roll a die! If the die lands on a one, three or five, the monster Dice Coliseum targets is destroyed. But if the die lands on a two, four or six, that monster gains 1000 ATK during battle this turn! I use Dice Coliseum to target Kendama!"

"Huh? But if the die lands on a bad number, your monster would be destroyed!" the boy pointed out.

"Maybe, but sometimes in a duel you can only depend on luck," Yugo pointed out. "I'd think even a kid like you would know that with cards like Celfon and Wonder Tool in your deck. Now lets go, die roll!"

A small die resembling Yugo's Red-Eyed Dice flew out of the large version of Yugo's Trap card onto the field. When the die stopped its roll, it landed on a four and vanished. Soon after, Kendama's body began to give off a red aura.

"Yes! Now Kendama's ATK jumps to 3200 in this battle!" Yugo announced. "Which means your Stereon is toast!"

Stereon flexed his arms and blasted Kendama with a rock melody from the speakers on his arms. Kendama was forced back slightly, but withstood the attack and pushed right on through. Stereon was skewered though the chest by Kendama's lance and exploded with a flash of fire and smoke. The boy's life points dropped to 3100.

"Aw dang it!" the boy cursed. "Well, I guess I end my turn."

With the end of the boy's turn, the axe blade on Power Tool's army knife arm retracted back into the tool.

Yugo drew his next card. "I summon Speedroid Pachingo-Kart in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on Yugo's side of the field was a blue vehicle resembling a go-kart. It had two legs projecting from the front that ended with two large iron balls that acted as wheels. There was a third larger iron ball under the vehicle's rear that acted as another wheel, and on top of the vehicle's rear end was a distinct yellow spoiler.

"I activate Pachingo-Kart's effect!" Yugo announced. "By discarding a Machine-Type monster, Pachingo-Kart can destroy one monster my opponent controls. I discard Speedroid Ohajikid to destroy Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!"

A large red ball shot from a cannon built into the front of Pachingo-Kart and struck Power Tool in the chest, causing a large explosion. When the smoke from the explosion cleared though, the green-haired boy's robotic dragon was still standing.

"What the hell?" Yugo exclaimed. "Why is Power Tool still on the field?"

"Nice try, loser. But when Power Tool would be destroyed, I can send one Equip card attached to him to the Graveyard instead," the boy explained. "I sent Junk Barrage to the Graveyard to block Pachingo-Kart's effect. Of course Power Tool's ATK is now down to 2400, but that's easy to fix."

"Fine! In that case, I activate Kendama's effect and banish Ohajikid from the Graveyard to inflict another 500 points of damage!" Yugo announced.

With that, Kendama fired another blast of blue light from the tip of his lance. The boy once again crossed his arms to block the attack, but his life points still dropped to 2600.

"I end my turn!" Yugo announced.

The boy recovered from Yugo's last attack and drew his next card. "I activate Power Tool's effect and equip him with Axe of Despair from the Graveyard!"

A gnarled wooden axe suddenly materialized in Power Tool's left hand. The mechanical dragon's body then began to give off a sinister red aura.

"Now Power Tool's ATK points go back up to 3500," the boy continued. "Now I activate Wonder Tool's effect and send another random Equip Spell to the Graveyard!"

A card popped out from the boy's deck near the top. The boy looked at the card and grinned before placing it in the Graveyard slot of his duel disk.

"Oh yeah! I am on fire today!" the boy declared. "The card that Wonder Tool sent to the Graveyard is 7 Completed! The 7 Completed card lets me boost the ATK or DEF points of a Machine monster by 700. I'm going to use this 7 Completed card to boost Power Tool's ATK, which means his ATK rises to 4200!"

A knife blade with a red number seven popped out of the army knife on Power Tool's arm. The blade instantly began to give off sparks of red electricity.

"I get it. You use Wonder Tool to send Equip cards to the Graveyard so that you can equip them to Power Tool later using its effect," Yugo realized.

"That's right! This is the ultimate combo of Power Tool and Wonder Tool!" the boy declared. "Power Tool's ATK will just drop back to 3500 at the end of the turn, but then on my next turn I can just take 7 Completed back from the Graveyard. Only then, Power Tool's ATK will just jump up to 4300. For now though, Power Tool's got plenty of ATK to clobber you! Power Tool. Tear Pachingo-Kart to pieces! Crafty Demolition!"

Power Tool charged forward and thrust his electrified knife blade into Pachingo-Kart. The mechanical go-kart exploded upon being stabbed and Yugo's life points dropped to 1400.

"That ends my turn," the boy announced. "But on my next turn, you're history banana-head!"

With the end of the boy's turn, Power Tool's electrified knife tool retracted into his army knife attachment.

"For the last time, my name is Yugo!" the young turbo duelist told him as he drew a card. "And there's not gonna be a next turn for you, you little punk! I activate the Spell card, Pot of Acquisitiveness! By shuffling three of my banished monsters back into my deck, I can draw one card!"

"Like that'll do ya any good!" the boy scoffed.

Yugo merely drew another card from his deck and smirked. "I summon Speedroid Horse Stilts in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Yugo's side of the battlefield was a cream-colored machine that was green on top and resembled the body of a horse. It had a jet on its rear that let out a stream of blue exhaust, and floating beneath its body were two long blue and grey poles that seemed to act as legs.

"When Horse Stilts is normal summoned, I can special summon a level four or lower Speedroid from my hand!" Yugo continued. "I summon the card I just drew with Pot of Acquisitiveness, Speedroid Den-Den Daiko Duke!"

Yugo's toy drum-wielding nobleman appeared on the battlefield next to Horse Stilts.

"I tune the level three Den-Den Daiko Duke into the level four Horse Stilts for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Den-Den Daiko Duke played his drum a few times before flashing orange and changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Horse Stilts and changed the mechanical steed into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of light that shot into the sky. The light quickly faded, and Yugo's cybernetic dragon emerged with a roar. As soon as Clear Wing appeared, Power Tool's broken eye began to flicker on and off.

"Holy crap!" the boy exclaimed. "Where the heck did someone like you get a card like that?"

"A very dear friend of mine gave it to me many years ago," Yugo answered. "Now I activate Kendama's effect and banish Pachingo-Kart to inflict another 500 points of damage!"

Kendama fired another shot of blue light from the tip of his lance at the boy. The boy crossed his arms to try and block the attack yet again, but his life points still fell to 2100.

"You may be able to take cheap shots at my life points, but not even that flashy dragon of yours can beat Power Tool!" the boy declared.

"Maybe not now, but he will be after I activate this Spell card, Shock Surprise!" Yugo announced. "By banishing two Speedroids from my Graveyard, I can destroy two cards on the field! I banish Horse Stilts and Den-Den Daiko Duke to destroy Axe of Despair and Swiss Army Wonder Tool!"

Suddenly two swirling balls of green air came down from above and struck Power Tool. Upon being hit, the mechanical dragon's axe shattered and the army knife on his arm changed back into his original backhoe attachment.

"Because Power Tool no longer has any Equip Spells, his ATK drops back to normal and you can't do anything to protect him from being destroyed!" Yugo continued.

"Oh no!" the boy exclaimed.

"Clear Wing, attack Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!" Yugo commanded. "Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Clear Wing roared before rising into the air and flying down towards the mechanical dragon as a twister of green wind enshrouded his body. The cybernetic dragon drilled right through Power Tool's chest and caused the robot dragon to explode. The boy was knocked onto his back from the explosion and his life points dropped to 1900.

"Kendama, attack this punk directly!" Yugo commanded. "High-Speed Lance!"

Kendama flew across the battlefield and rammed into the boy as he tried crossing his arms to protect himself. The boy was knocked into a nearby pile of junk and his life points plummeted to zero. With the duel over, Clear Wing and Kendama vanished from the field.

"Yeah! That'll teach you to mess with me, you little brat!" Yugo enthusiastically cheered.

The boy sat back up and looked at Yugo with a frightened expression. Yugo suddenly realized that he had gotten carried away again; that he had let his temper get the better of him. It hadn't been the first time such a thing had happened. Rin had chewed Yugo out for it more than once. The only the reason that the boy had attacked Yugo was because he was scared of him. He had put on a brave front with all that trash talk, but Yugo could clearly see that the boy had been frightened from the beginning.

Yugo let out a heavy sigh and slowly began to approach the boy. "Hey, I'm sorry for getting carried away just now. I promise I'm not gonna hurt you. You're more than welcome to stay here if you want."

"…Honest?" the boy asked.

"Honest," Yugo assured him. "Now, what's your name?"

"…Rua," the boy answered. "Where did you come from, anyway? You're not like any of the other people in this city."

"That's kind of a long story," Yugo answered. "I can tell you though that I used to live here before the city changed. Say, you have anything to eat around here?"

"Of course," Rua answered. "It's not much, but it's the best I could scrounge up living out here on the street."

"Then let's go in and have a bite to eat," Yugo suggested. "After the day I've had, I'm starved."

Yugo and Rua went back into the apartment, where Rua showed him where he was keeping his supply of food. Yugo was able to use some of the meager supplies to make a couple of sandwiches, which they later ate in Yugo's room.

"So, you really used to live here?" Rua asked as they ate.

"That's right," Yugo confirmed. "In fact, that room you were hiding in when I first found you belonged to my friend, Rin."

"Is this the same friend who gave you that flashy dragon card?" Rua asked.

"Yep. She gave it to me years ago for my birthday," Yugo revealed. "It's probably one of the best gifts that I've ever gotten."

"It's a pretty impressive card," Rua admitted. "So was this girl, Rin like your girlfriend or something?"

Rua's innocent question made Yugo's face turn bright red. "G-Girlfriend? Don't be silly! Rin and I were just childhood friends. I mean we hadn't even kissed yet or anything."

"Okay?" Rua responded with a raised eyebrow.

"Look, never mind about me and Rin," Yugo told him after quickly regaining his composure. "Can you tell me what happened to the city? When did it end up like this, and how?"

"Don't you know any of that stuff?" Rua asked.

"Before all this, security had arrested me and threw me in some kind of suspended animation thing," Yugo explained. "When I woke up earlier today, I hit the streets to find that the Commons have been totally transformed. Not only that, I ended up dueling some kind of robot. So can you do me a favor and fill me in on what happened?"

After a moment, Rua nodded. "It all happened about three months ago, not long after Jack Atlas won the Friendship Cup."

"Wait, it's been only three months since that time?" a stunned Yugo asked.

"Well, yeah. How long ago did you think this happened?" Rua asked.

"I didn't know how much time had passed since I was put to sleep," Yugo explained. "For all I knew, what you're talking about might've happened at least a hundred years ago."

"Well… anyway, it was early in the morning when it started," Rua continued. "My sister and I were on our way to school. We lived in one of the nicer parts of the Tops. Our life was pretty peaceful. Then, that day… this pyramid thing appeared in the sky."

"Is this the same pyramid that's in the center of the city?" Yugo asked. "I saw it right after I beat that robot I mentioned before."

"That's the one, but it was flying when my sister and I first saw it," Rua answered. "Nobody knew what the thing was. Some people like me thought it was some kind of alien ship or something. When the pyramid showed up though, there was a voice coming from it belonging to a guy who said he was the leader of something called Iliaster. This same guy said that he had killed those five old people who were on the city's ruling council, and that he was going to be taking over the city.

"After that, an army of those robots showed up and took down the city's whole security force. Then the robots just started rounding people up. Tops, Commons, it didn't matter where they were from. Those robots just arrested them and took them away to that pyramid thing after it landed in the center of the city."

"What happened to them?" Yugo asked.

"You must've seen all those people on the street on the way here, right?" Rua asked. "Did you notice those grey things they had on their ears? I don't know what they are, but somehow they're causing everyone in the city to act like zombies or something. And the pyramid is where they got them."

Yugo recalled seeing the devices that Rua was talking about covering the left ears of the people he had seen out walking around before. He also recalled how every one of those people had blank expressions on their faces.

"My sister, Ruka… she was one of the people who got taken away to that pyramid," Rua revealed as tears came to his eyes. "I tried to protect her, but… I just wasn't strong enough! All I could do was run away and hide here like a coward."

Yugo patted Rua on the head. "I'm sure you did everything you could to help your sister. You shouldn't beat yourself up over what happened."

"…Maybe… maybe you could help me save her!" Rua suddenly suggested.

"Huh? What're you talking about?" Yugo asked.

"I know where my sister is," Rua revealed. "Or at least I know where she goes every day. She's become a zombie like everyone else, but maybe I could break through to her somehow. The problem is I don't think I can reach her on my own, but if I had a strong duelist like you backing me up, maybe I'd have a shot. So please Yugo, will you help me?"

"Well… sure. What the heck?" Yugo agreed. "It's not like hiding out here is gonna do any good. But how 'bout we wait until morning to do this? It's getting late and I'm pretty beat."

"That's fine with me," Rua agreed. "I think there are more of those robots out on the street anyway."

* * *

Night had fallen upon the city, and Yugo had gone to bed. He was at least thankful that with all the craziness that was going on, he could at least sleep in his own home. Of course sleep was not coming easily to Yugo. He kept staring up at the ceiling trying to wrap his head around everything he had learned. Yugo was glad that at least he had only been asleep inside that metal coffin for only three months instead of a few hundred years.

The fact that only a few months had gone by meant that Rin was still very much alive, but it also probably mean that she was in the same state as everyone else in the city. The idea of Rin being some sort of mindless zombie was the thing that was really keeping Yugo awake. If Rin really was in that sort of condition, Yugo had no idea how he was going to bring her back to the way she was. That was admittedly part of the reason why he had decided to help Rua get back his sister. If Rua's sister could be turned back to normal, then there was a good chance that Rin could be turned back too. It was a long shot, but Yugo was willing to take it. He was willing to fight like hell to get Rin back.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So as you've all seen, Jack and Crow won't be the only 5D's characters to be making an appearance in this story. I partly chose to go with the original Japanese names for the twins because I wanted to se this story apart from my _5D's Alternative_ trilogy. There is another big reason that some of you reading might be able to guess.

Anyway, I hope that the duel in this chapter was enjoyable. I of course decided to give Rua's deck a bit of a makeover since Jack and Crow's deck got one in the ARC-V anime. So while Crow has his Assault Blackwings, Rua has the new Morphtronic Warriors that I came up with. You'll be seeing a few more of them as the story unfolds. Also, because Jack uses an older battle scarred version of Red Dragon Archfiend in the anime, I decided to have Rua use an old beat-up version of Power Tool Dragon.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	3. Twin Trapped In Darkness

**Author's Note:** The title for this chapter is actually a play on the title used for an episode of the anime, _The Little Bird Trapped In Darkness_. The reason I chose to use a twist on that title for this chapter will become clear fairly quickly.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 3: Twin Trapped In Darkness

About an hour after dawn had broke, Yugo set out into the city with Rua riding on the back of his D-Wheel. The boy had told Yugo that his twin sister, Ruka attended some kind of school each day. Rua didn't know where else Ruka went the rest of the day. Each day some kind of bus would come and take all of the kids going there to some other part of the city, and just where that place was, Rua could only guess. Therefore, the school was the best place for them to find and somehow rescue Ruka. This school, or whatever sort of establishment it was, was located in the lower level of the city that had once been the Commons. As Yugo drove through that futuristic lower level with Rua riding behind him, he couldn't help but feel as though he was in some alien world.

"Hey Rua, I've been wondering about something," Yugo spoke. "If it's only been three months since this Iliaster group or whatever it was took over, how is it that the Commons were transformed so quickly into this?"

"Right after everyone in the city was rounded up and taken to that pyramid, there were these weird spider-like robots that swarmed all over the city and started doing stuff to all the buildings," Rua explained. "They worked pretty much day and night for at least the first month. During that time, I was kinda scared to leave the apartment building 'cause I thought they might eat me up or something. I just gathered up all the food that I could and locked myself in one of the rooms. Every now and then I'd take a look out the window to see what those spider bots were doing and hoped that they wouldn't come anywhere near where I was."

"…Damn. That must've been pretty scary," Yugo admitted. "Guess I kinda lucked out being asleep through all that."

"Fortunately there were some areas of the Commons that those spider bots never touched for some reason, like the apartment building," Rua explained. "I don't know why they left that place alone, but I'm not complaining."

"Hey, maybe those robots aren't finished turning the Commons into whatever the hell this place is," Yugo suddenly realized. "The reason they didn't touch my place could be because it was like low priority or something. I mean even with all those robots working day and night like that, it's probably still gonna take them a while to get everything finished."

"Wait, so you mean those spider bots could come after us eventually?" an alarmed Rua realized.

"Maybe. Well, let's worry about saving your sister first," Yugo decided. "So is there really a way to get into this school or whatever it is?"

"There are only a couple that I can think of," Rua answered. "The thing is that this school has this huge fence all around it, and it's pretty much impossible to climb over it. There are four entrances in the fence, but each one is guarded by one of those security robots."

"Wait, you mean like the one I dueled yesterday before meeting you?" Yugo asked.

"Pretty much," Rua confirmed. "I'm a pretty decent duelist, but I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to beat one of those things. That's where you come in, Yugo. I figured that since you beat one of those robots before, you could do it again. Once you beat one of those guards, we can just storm in there and find Ruka."

"Are you nuts? I barely got out of my duel with that robot duel chaser by the skin of teeth!" Yugo told him. "Plus even if I did beat the robot guarding the gate, they'd probably send a whole bunch of robots after us!"

"Oh… guess that never occurred to me," Rua realized. "You're pretty smart when it comes to this kinda thing."

"Well when you grow up in the Commons the way I did, you either learn how to avoid security or end up in the detention facility," Yugo pointed out. "Charging in from the front like that is a pretty stupid plan. Now you said there was another way in?"

"Well… there is, but it's kinda risky," Rua answered. "Then again, with your D-Wheel, we might be able to pull it off. Right next to the school there's this hill that has some kind of ramp on it for some reason. I guess it was going to be part of a bridge that never got built for some reason. Anyway, the ramp should be high enough for us to jump over the fence and land right in the schoolyard."

"It's a lot better than your other idea," Yugo told him. "So tell me how to get to this ramp you're talking about."

With Rua's directions, Yugo drove to an elevated part of the Neo Commons. There at the end of the street between what looked like two small futuristic office buildings was the ramp that Rua was talking about. Yugo drove up to the end of the ramp and looked down off the edge. Just below was a cluster of three fairly large rectangular white buildings surrounded by a thick grey metal wall resembling a dome with the top cut off. Yugo noticed that a highway bridge was build right next to the fence. Just as Rua had theorized earlier, it seemed that the ramp was indeed going to be part of an overpass that would've connected up to that part of the highway. Whatever the ramp's original purpose was though, it did seem to Yugo like they could use it to jump over the fence and into the schoolyard.

"This way to get in should work, but it's pretty risky," Yugo told his young companion. "Just for the record though, Rin and I put a lot of work into building this D-Wheel of mine. So if we break it because of this, I'm gonna kick your ass into next week."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine," Rua assumed with a wave of his hand. "Now let's kiss the sky!"

Yugo drove back down the road a few feet to get some distance from the ram. When he thought he had gotten far enough away, the young turbo duelist revved up the engine and drove towards the ramp at full speed.

"Hold on tight, kid!" Yugo told Rua as they reached the ramp.

As Rua clung onto Yugo's midsection as tightly as he could, the white and black D-Wheel sailed off the end of the ramp and into the air above the school. Rua let out a loud scream as the motorcycle sailed over the massive wall and landed with both wheels inside the concrete schoolyard. Yugo brought his D-Wheel to a screeching halt once they had made it.

"Holy crap! …That was probably the coolest thing I've ever done," a wide-eyed Rua declared.

"We're in and we're still alive," Yugo observed. "So far, so good."

Suddenly Rua saw a familiar figure in the distance. Before Yugo could stop him, the green-haired boy removed his helmet and jumped off the D-Wheel.

"Wait right here, Yugo! I'll be right back with my sister!" Rua told him as he dashed off.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Yugo called, but it was no use.

Just as Yugo was about to go after Rua, he saw someone exit the building across the campus to his left out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head at the last second to see the back of a young woman with short green hair who appeared to be about his age. Whoever the young woman was, she was quickly walking away towards one of the neighboring buildings. Though Yugo couldn't see the girl's face, her hairstyle seemed to indicate that she was someone who had been very close to him.

"Rin…" Yugo quietly spoke. "RIN!"

With that, Yugo drove his D-Wheel across the campus, apparently forgetting all about Rua and his quest to find his sister.

* * *

After a few short moments of running, Rua had reached the front of the building directly across from where Yugo's D-Wheel had landed. Heading for the building's front door was a girl with green hair who looked exactly like Rua, only she had two large green pigtails instead of the single ponytail that Rua had.

"Ruka!" Rua called as he ran towards his twin. "Ruka, wait!"

Rua grabbed onto his sister's shoulder, causing her to turn around. Ruka merely gave her brother a cold blank stare and looked him up and down as if trying to remember who he was.

"You are Rua, the twin brother of Unit Ruka," the green-haired girl identified. "We do not know how you entered this facility, but however you did is irrelevant. You are a rouge element and must be eliminated."

"Ruka, why the heck are you talking like that?" Rua asked. "C'mon! Let's get out of here."

"This unit is going nowhere with you," Ruka coldly told him. "You would be well advised to surrender peacefully."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Rua told her as he tried to pull her away by the shoulder. "Now c'mon!"

Ruka responded by freeing herself from her brother's grip and gave him a knee to the gut that knocked him a few feet back. As Rua got back to his feet, Ruka suddenly pulled a duel disk out of the black bag she was carrying.

"You have two choices," Ruka declared as she activated her duel disk. "You can surrender peacefully, or you can fight. It would be far less painful for you if you chose the former."

"So that's the way it's gotta be, huh?" Rua realized. "Fine then! I don't know what happened to you in that pyramid, Ruka. But if I have to duel you to bring you back to the way you were, I will!"

With that, Rua activated his duel disk and both he and his sister drew their opening hands.

"Unit Ruka shall go first," the green-haired girl declared. "Unit Ruka summons Meklord Army of Skiel in Attack Mode."

Appearing on Ruka's side of the field was floating blue robot that almost looked like some kind of wyvern. Its blue head, which was supported by a long grey neck, had a long point at the back like a pterodactyl, and its face was a black screen with red lines on it that formed an angry expression. The machine's arms ended with what appeared to be blasters, and attached to the sides of its shoulders by grey ball joints were two bluish-white wings. The robot's lower half was a long tail that ended with some kind of foot or talon.

"Unit Ruka ends her turn," Ruka announced.

"Battle Royale initiated," suddenly spoke a mechanical voice from Rua and Ruka's duel disks.

Rua looked, and walking out of the front of the building was a girl who appeared to be about ten and had an already active duel disk on her arm. She had straight neon pink hair that was cut just above her shoulders. Covering the girl's eyes was a blue visor that seemed to connect to the strange device covering her left ear, the same type of device that was covering Ruka's left ear. The girl's outfit consisted of a long white sleeveless coat over a black bodysuit with white boots. Around the girl's right upper arm was a white armband with a black infinity symbol on it.

"Special Security Unit Hitomi now enters the duel," the pinkette announced while drawing a card from her deck. "Unit Hitomi summons Meklord Army of Wisel in Attack Mode."

Materializing on the battlefield was a white humanoid robot with a blaster-like device on its left arm.

"Meklord Army of Skiel gains 200 additional ATK points for every other Meklord monster on the field," Ruka announced. "With the presence of Meklord Army of Wisel, the ATK of Meklord Army of Skiel rises from 1200 to 1400."

"Furthermore, Meklord Army of Wisel gains 100 additional ATK points for every other Meklord monster on the field," Hitomi added. "Due to the presence of Meklord Army of Skiel, the ATK of Meklord Army of Wisel rises from 1800 to 1900. Unit Hitomi sets two cards on the field and ends her turn."

"Hey! No fair!" Rua protested. "I don't know who you are, but you can't just barge in on a duel like that!"

"Fair is irrelevant," Hitomi told him. "Unit Hitomi has been configured to eliminate any rogue elements that may disrupt the harmony of this facility. "You have been classified as a rouge element, therefore Unit Hitomi was dispatched to eliminate you as quickly as possible."

"Yeah? Well I don't care what your job is!" Rua told her. "This duel is between me and my sister, so butt out!"

"There is nothing to butt out of, as you put it," Ruka and Hitomi said together in unison. "We are all as one. Your duel is not merely with Unit Ruka, but with all of us."

Suddenly Rua noticed that he was no longer alone with his two opponents. Other students at the school and even a few teachers it seemed had gathered around to watch. Every single spectator had the same cold blank expression as Ruka.

"Oh… whatever! I'll take you both down if I have to!" Rua declared as he drew his first card. "I summon Morphtronic Warrior Celfon in Attack Mode!"

Rua's giant yellow cell phone appeared on the battlefield and instantly transformed into its robot form.

"I activate Celfon's effect!" Rua announced. "Celfon dials a random number. Whatever number gets dialed, I take the same number of cards from the top of my deck, and then if any of those cards are a level four or lower Morphtronic monster, I can summon that monster to the field. Now let's go!"

The numbers on Celfon's chest began to light up, cycling from one to six at a rapid speed. After a few moments the lights began to slow down until finally stopping on the number two.

"I take the top two cards from the top of my deck," Rua announced, "then… I special summon Morphtronic Scopen in Attack Mode!"

Rua's giant microscope monster materialized on the field and immediately took on its robot form.

"Next I activate Scopen's effect and special summon Morphtronic Videon from my hand in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

A giant handheld digital camera appeared on Rua's side of the field and instantly unfolded into a humanoid shape. Its lens extended into a cylindrical blue head with yellow eyes and a silver faceplate. The camera's screen meanwhile had split apart to become like a pair of wings.

"Now I tune the level three Scopen into the level one Celfon for a level four Synchro Summon!" Rua announced.

Scopen's body flashed orange before changing into three rings made of green light. The rings encircled Celfon and changed him into a single white star.

"Electronic warrior from the world of games! Strike down the wicked with your sword of light!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level four! Morphtronic Warrior Gamebon!"

The star flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot up into the sky. After a moment, the light faded to reveal a large dark-blue handheld game device with large black handgrips. The handgrips moved upward to become pieces of shoulder armor and a pair of dark-blue arms with grey hands emerged from the sides. The bottom of the game machine opened up and a pair of dark-blue legs attached to a black waist and a dark-blue lower body sprung out. Meanwhile a head covered by a white helmet rose out of the machine's top. Two short black horns adorned the sides of the helmet, and covering the robot's face was a red visor and a silver faceplate. As soon as the robot had finished its transformation, the large screen on its chest lit up.

"For my next move, I banish Celfon from the Graveyard to special summon Morphtronic Smartfon in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

A large smart phone materialized on the battlefield next to Videon. As soon as it appeared, orange arms and legs emerged from the sides of the device and a flat head extended from the top.

"I activate Smartfon's effect!" Rua announced. "Celfon dials a random number. Whatever number it lands on, I get to take the same number of cards from the top of my deck. If there are any Morphtronic monsters from the cards I pull using this effect, I can add one of those monsters to my hand. Now let's go!"

A set of phone dials appeared on Smartfon's screen and began to flash, cycling through the numbers one to six. After a few moments, the lights stopped on the number five.

Rua pulled the top five cards from his deck. "I add Morphtronic Staplen to my hand and shuffle the other cards I just pulled back into my deck! Now I tune the level one Smartfon into the level four Videon for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Smartfon beeped a few times before turning into a single ring made of green light. The ring encircled Videon and changed the camera robot into four white stars.

"Fiery crusader from the world of tomorrow! Blaze forth and roast evil with your flames of justice!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level five! Morphtronic Warrion Micron!"

The stars flashed into a pillar of light that shot up into the sky. Within moments the light faded to reveal a giant silver microwave. The sides of the machine opened up and a pair of silver arms with black hands emerged. At the same time, a pair of silver legs attached to a black waist and a silver lower body unfolded from the back and swung down to click into place on the underside of the machine. Meanwhile a black helmet with a red visor and a chrome faceplate emerged from the top of the microwave.

"I activate Micron's effect!" Rua announced. "Once per turn, I can discard a Machine-Type monster to inflict 400 points of damage for each Morphtronic monster I control! I discard Morphtronic Staplen to inflict 800 points of damage to Hitomi!"

The door on Micron's chest swung open and fired a barrage of red energy balls across the battlefield at Hitomi. The pinkette was totally unfazed as the attack hit her, yet her life points still fell to 3200.

"Now I activate Gamebon's effect!" Rua announced. "Once per turn, I can change the battle position of a monster on the field. Then until the end of the turn, Gamebon gain's half the ATK of the monster he used his effect on. I use Gamebon to change Meklord Army of Skiel to Defense Mode!"

Gamebon fired a beam of blue light from the screen on his chest across the field at the Skiel Army monster. Upon being hit, the robotic wyvern gave off a blue aura that faded as soon as it appeared.

"Since Army of Skiel has 1400 ATK, Gamebon's ATK rises from 1800 to 2500," Rua continued. "Next I equip Gamebon with Fairy Metero Crush, allowing him to inflict piercing damage! Now I attack Army of Skiel with Gamebon! Video Sword!"

Gamebon pulled a large electric blue wireframe sword from the screen on his chest as he charged across the battlefield. The videogame robot cut the Skiel Army monster in half, causing it to explode. Ruka's life points dropped 2500 from the attack.

"Because Meklord Army of Skiel was destroyed, Unit Ruka can summon another Meklord Army monster from the deck," Rua's twin announced. "Unit Ruka summoned a second Meklord Army of Skiel."

As the smoke from the explosion cleared, a second Skiel Army monster materialized on the battlefield.

"Yeah? Well next I attack Meklord Army of Wisel with Micron!" Rua announced. "Magnetron Blaster!"

Micron pointed his right arm at the Wisel Army monster and a silver blaster rose from the top of his wrist. The microwave robot fired a beam of red-orange light at the humanoid robot, hitting it in the chest. The Wisel Army monster exploded on being hit and Hitomi's life points took a slight drop from 3200 to 3000.

"Unit Hitomi activates the Trap card, Rebuilt Solider," Hitomi announced. "When a Meklord Army monster is destroyed in battle, Rebuilt Soldier summons that monster back to the field."

Before the smoke could clear, the Wisel robot that Micron had just destroyed reappeared on the field in the exact same spot.

"Unit Hitomi now activates the Quick-Play Spell, Deployment of the Meklords," Hitomi announced. "With this card, Unit Hitomi summons two more copies of Meklord Army of Wisel from the deck."

Two more Army of Wisel monster identical to the first one materialized on Hitomi's part of the battlefield.

"Due to the addition of the two new Meklord monsters, the ATK points of Meklord Army of Skiel rise to 1800," Ruka announced.

"In addition, the ATK points of all three Army of Wisel monsters rise to 2100," Hitomi added. "Observation, your strategy was flawed. Because each Meklord Army of Wisel monster has zero DEF points, it would've been the ideal target for Gamebon's effect and attack."

"Furthermore, Micron's 2100 ATK points would've allowed you to inflict a suitable amount of damage by attacking Meklord Army of Skiel," Ruka added. "Your tactics are as flawed as Unit Ruka remembers."

"Dang it Ruka! Just snap out of it already!" Rua exclaimed. "What heck has happened to you?"

"If you are finished, please end your turn," Ruka coldly requested.

"Fine! I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Rua announced. "And since my turn is over, Gamebon's ATK returns to 1800."

Ruka drew her next card. "Unit Ruka summons another copy of Meklord Army of Skiel in Attack Mode."

A second blue mechanical wyvern identical to the first materialized on Ruka's part of the battlefield.

"Due to the presence of this Army of Skiel monster on the field, the ATK points of both Army of Skiel monsters rise to 2000," Ruka announced.

"And the ATK points of all three Meklord Army of Wisel monsters rise to 2200," Hitomi added.

"Unit Ruka uses the second Army of Skiel monster to attack Morphtronic Warrior Gamebon," Ruka announced.

"I activate Gamebon's effect!" Rua announced. "When Gamebon is attacked, I can change his battle position! Gamebon goes into Defense Mode!"

With that, Gamebon's body folded back into his original handheld game form.

"Irrelevant. Gamebon still only has 1800 DEF points," Ruka pointed out. "You may have protected yourself from damage, but your monster will still be destroyed."

"That's where you're wrong!" Rua declared as the Skiel drone flew in for the kill. "I activate Gamebon's other effect! Once per turn, while Gamebon is attacked while in Defense Mode, I can switch the battle position of the attacking monster! I use that effect to switch that second robot chicken of yours to Defense Mode!"

Just as the Skiel Army monster was about to open fire, Gamebon fired a beam of blue light from his screen. Upon being hit, the Skiel drone crackled with blue electricity for a moment and halted its attack.

"Your resistance is futile," Ruka declared. "Unit Ruka attacks Gamebon with the third Army of Skiel monster."

"I activate my Trap, United Defense Force!" Rua announced. "When a Morphtronic Warrior of mine is attacked while in Defense Mode, United Defense Force raises that monsters DEF for every other Morphtronic I have on the field times 1000! Which means Gamebon's DEF goes up to 2800!"

The final Skiel drone flew in and fired two beams of orange light from the long blasters on its arms. Gamebon instantly retaliated by firing back another blue blast from his screen. The blast repelled the Skiel drone's attack and knocked the floating robot back over to Ruka's part of the field. Ruka's life points took a drop to 1700.

"Unit Ruka sets one card on the field and ends her turn," Ruka announced.

Hitomi drew her next card. "Unit Hitomi activates the Spell card, United Meklord Army. Until the end of this turn, if this card's user controls more than one Meklord Army monster with the same name, United Meklord Army increases the ATK points of those monsters by an amount equal to half their original ATK points. The ATK of all three Army of Wisel monsters now rise to 3000."

All three of Hitomi's Wisel Army robots began to glow with a crimson aura. The robot soldiers raises, and a blade of red energy began to project from each one.

"The first Army of Wisel monster attacks Morphtronic Warrior Micron," Hitomi announced.

"I activate Micron's effect and switch him to Defense Mode!" Rua announced.

On cue, Micron folded back up into his original giant microwave form.

"Irrelevant. Each Army of Wisel monster is able to inflict piercing damage," Hitomi revealed.

"I also activate the second effect of United Defense Force from the Graveyard!" Rua announced. "By banishing United Defense Force from the Graveyard, the DEF of all my Morphtronic Warrior monsters is doubled until the end of the turn! Which means Micron's DEF goes up from 2100 to 4200! Plus, while Micron is in Defense Mode, he doubles the damage the opponent might take from attacking him!"

Just as the Wisel soldier moved in to strike, Micron opened his door and blasted the robot with an intense beam of red energy. The Wisel Army monster was knocked back to Hitomi's part of the battlefield and the pinkette's life points dropped to 600.

"Unit Hitomi sets two cards on the field and ends her turn," Hitomi announced. "At this point, the ATK of all three Amry of Wisel monsters return to 2200."

Rua drew his next card. "First, I switch Micron and Gamebon back to Attack Mode!"

At Rua's command, the two giant appliances unfolded back into their robot forms.

"I activate the Spell card, M-Warrior Blessing!" Rua announced. "If I control at least two Machine-Type Synchro Monsters, I can draw two cards from my deck. Then, if I have at least one Morphtronic Warrior on the field, I can special summon a Morphtronic Tuner monster from my hand. I special summon Morphtronic Lantron in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Rua's part of the battlefield was a large blue and black military grade flashlight. As soon as it appeared, the flashlight unfolded into a more humanoid shape. The light on the front of the device had become the machine's torso, and its back end had swung down and split apart to become a pair of legs. A small blue head with a white face and green eyes rose out of the top of the machine.

"Next I summon Morphtronic Magnen in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

A giant blue and red horseshoe magnet appeared on the field next to Lantron. The magnet immediately unfolded to become a humanoid robot, with one of its ends splitting apart to become a pair of legs and the other end becoming a long piece of armor that covered its head.

"I tune the level one Lantron with the level three Magnen for a level four Synchro Summon!" Rua announced.

Lantron clicked the light on his chest on and off before transforming into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Magnen and changed him into three white stars.

"Guardian of sound from the modern age! Strike forth and play the song of justice!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level four! Morphtronic Warrior Stereon!"

The stars flashed and became a single pillar of light that shot up into the sky. In moments, the light faded to reveal a giant stereo that immediately unfolded into the robot warrior that Rua had used in his duel against Yugo.

"When Stereon attacks a monster, he gains 200 ATK for each Morphtronic in my Graveyard during the battle!" Rua announced. "Right now I have five Morphtronics in the Graveyard, which means Stereon's ATK will go up from 2000 to 3000! Stereon, attack the second Army of Skiel monster! Rock 'n Roll Justice!"

"Unit Ruka now activates the Trap card, Meklord Factory," Ruka announced. "When a Meklord monster is attacked, Meklord Factory lets its user return a Meklord Army monster in the Graveyard to the hand before destroying the attack target. Unit Ruka returns one Meklord Army of Skiel monster back to her hand."

Just as Stereon fired a blast of rock music from his speakers, the Skiel drone he was firing at suddenly exploded. When the smoke finally cleared, a new monster had appeared in the destroyed monster's place. It was another robot that was mainly blue in color and had a bird-like body with a long tail, a pair of narrow wings, and head with four eyes. On its chest was a window shaped like an infinity symbol and showing a ball of blue-green light inside. Mounted on the bottom of the machine's torso was a large silver cannon.

"What… what the heck?" a stunned Rua exclaimed.

"Because a monster was destroyed by a card effect, Unit Ruka was able to special summon Meklord Emperor Skiel from her hand," Ruka revealed.

"At this point, Unit Hitomi activates the Trap card, Imperial Advent," Hitomi announced. "When a Meklord Emperor is summoned to the field, Imperial Advent allows its user destroy a monster they control and summon a Meklord Emperor straight from the deck, regardless of summoning conditions. Unit Hitomi destroys her first Army of Wisel monster to summon Meklord Emperor Wisel from the deck."

Suddenly one of the Wisel soldiers exploded with a flash of fire and smoke. When the smoke cleared, the giant white robot that was Meklord Emperor Wisel was standing on the battlefield in its place.

"The effect of Imperial Advent also brings the Battle Phase to an end," Hitomi added.

"This can't be good," Rua declared. "Dang it! I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

"It is futile for you to resist," Ruka declared as she drew her next card. "Before the end of this turn, you will be eliminated."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed the first half of this latest duel. I think I should take a moment to clear something about the end to this duel up, because there's probably a chance somebody will bring it up in a review. With both Meklord Emperors Skiel and Wisel on the field, some of you reading may think that neither monster will be able to attack because their own effects prevents monsters other than themselves from attacking. Well, the effect text for both Meklord Emperors state that only the other monsters that their users control are unable to attack. Since both Wisel and Skiel are controlled by two different duelists, both Meklord Emperors are able to attack. It's not the same as the Meklord Army monsters that have effects that cover the whole field, in other words Meklord Army monsters would gain ATK for Meklord monsters that the opponent might control.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	4. Collective

**Battle Royale Rules:** In his review of the last chapter, my friend DragonKnight15 pointed out that I didn't explain why Hitomi didn't take a life point penalty for initiating that Battle Royale and intruding on Rua and Ruka's duel. We talked about it a little, and it occurred to us that the ARC-V anime never really explained what the conditions for a life point penalty on a Battle Royale duel were. Or at least it didn't seem that way to us. So I thought I'd take a moment to explain a little bit about how Battle Royales are going to work in this story.

~When another player enters a duel before each of the current players have taken a turn, the intruding player does not take a life point penalty.

~If another player enters a duel after all of the current players have take a turn, that player takes a life point penalty of 2000 points.

In the last chapter, Hitomi had entered the duel before Rua had a chance to make his first turn. Therefore, she didn't take a penalty. I apologize for not explaining that before. Anyway, now that we've gotten that cleared up, on with the next chapter!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 4: Collective

By the time Yugo reached the building where he had seen the girl he thought might be Rin, she was gone. It quickly occurred to Yugo that she had probably gone inside the building. The young turbo duelist dismounted his D-Wheel and rushed inside without a second thought. Upon entering the building, Yugo saw several more young people about his age roaming the halls, each with the same sort of blank expression that he had seen on people in the City. He ignored every single one of them though and dashed down the hallway, keeping a sharp eye out for the girl he had seen earlier.

After running down at least four or five hallways, Yugo finally spotted the girl he had seen facing a large window at the end of a corridor. Without a moment's hesitation, Yugo ran down the hall towards the girl.

"Rin!" Yugo called as he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

The girl turned around upon being grabbed, and it was then that Yugo finally got a good look at the girl's face. Yugo didn't know who this girl was, but she clearly wasn't Rin. The girl's eyes were violet, while Rin's eyes were a stunning golden orange. Not only that, the nose of the girl standing before Yugo was just a tad too big she had a freckled face. The only physical feature that Rin and this girl had in common was the same green hairstyle.

"It was foolish of you to come in here after this unit," the girl told Yugo. "Because of your actions, that boy Rua is about to be eliminated."

"What the heck?" Yugo spoke as he backed away. "How do you know about Rua?"

"It is too late for you to do anything now," the girl continued. "The boy will either be eliminated or he will become one of us. Nothing you do now can change that."

"Crap!" Yugo cursed as he ran off back down through the halls to the front door.

Yugo realized that he had indeed made a very critical mistake. He had gotten so caught up in finding Rin that he had somehow forgotten all about Rua. Now it seemed as though Rua had landed in some kind of trouble. Yugo could imagine the chewing out that Rin would give him if she knew about this blunder. Whatever kind of bad spot that Rua had landed himself in, Yugo was going to do everything he could to get him out of it.

* * *

"For her first move, Unit Ruka plays the Field Spell, Meklord Metropolis," Ruka announced.

In an instant, the area surrounding the duel was totally transformed into a giant futuristic city that looked even more advanced than what the Commons had become. The buildings were all colored chrome, and most of them had glowing multicolored circuit paths running up the sides of them. The sky above had become grey and overcast, and in the distance Rua could see a massive skyscraper with a black infinity symbol decorating the top.

"Due to the effect of Meklord Metropolis, each Meklord Emperor monster gains 200 ATK points for every other Meklord monster on the field other than itself," Ruka continued. "Which means the ATK of Meklord Emperor Skiel rises from 2200 to 3000."

"Additionally, the ATK of Meklord Emperor Wisel rises from 2500 to 3300," Hitomi added.

"Unit Ruka now summons Meklord Controller of Skiel in Attack Mode," Ruka announced.

Materializing on Ruka's part of the battlefield was a floating blue sphere with a red circular eye on the front and two light-blue blade-like wings on the sides. Mounted underneath the sphere were two silver blasters, and on the front of the machine just above the eye was rectangular blinking green light.

"The effect of Meklord Controller of Skiel allows other Meklord its user controls to attack regardless of Meklord Emperor Skiel's effect," Ruka continued.

"Furthermore, the presence of Controller of Skiel on the field causes the ATK points of Meklord Emperor Wisel to rise to 3500," Hitomi added. "And for the ATK points of Meklord Emperor Skiel to rise to 3200."

"Unit Ruka now activates another effect of Meklord Metropolis," Ruka announced. "Once per turn, each player can special summon a Meklord Army monster with the same name as another Meklord Army monster they control. Unit Ruka special summons the Meklord Army of Skiel monster returned to the hand earlier by the effect of Meklord Factory."

A hatch opened up near the top of one of the surrounding skyscrapers. A Skiel Army monster emerged from the hatch and flew down to Ruka's part of the battlefield.

"Oh great! Now those two Meklord Emperors are even stronger," Rua realized.

"Correct. The ATK of Meklord Emperor Wisel is now 3700," Hitomi confirmed.

"And the ATK of Meklord Emperor Skiel is now 3400," Ruka added. "And those ATK points shall now rise even higher. Unit Ruka now activates Skiel's effect. Once per turn, Mkelord Emperor Skiel can equip itself with a Synchro Monster the opponent controls. Skiel equips itself with Morphtronic Warrior Gamebon."

Skiel's chest opened up, and several cables made of blue-green energy flew out and snared Gamebon. Gamebon struggled in vein as he was turned into a ball of blue-green energy and pulled into Skiel's chest.

"Meklord Emperor Skiel gains the ATK of each Synchro Monster equipped to it, meaning its ATK points are now 5200," Ruka continued. "Yet those ATK points will still continue to rise. Due to the effect of Meklord Metropolis, each player can equip a Meklord Emperor monster they control with a Synchro Monster twice per turn instead of once per turn. Unit Ruka now equips Skiel with Morphtronic Warrior Micron."

The bird-like Meklord Emperor opened its chest again and snared Micron with its energy cables. The microwave robot struggled uselessly as he was turned into energy and pulled into Skiel's chest.

"With the added ATK of Mircron, the ATK points of Meklord Emperor Skiel are now 7300," Ruka continued. "But now, as a demonstration of our power, Unit Ruka activates the secondary effect of Meklord Emperor Skiel. By sending a Synchro Monster equipped to Skiel to the Graveyard, Meklord Emperor Skiel can attack the player directly this turn. Unit Ruka sends Morphtronic Warrior Gamebon to the Graveyard."

At that moment, the large blaster on Skiel's underside began to power up.

"An ATK value of 5500 is more is more than enough to finish you off," Ruka declared. "Meklord Emperor Skiel makes a direct attack."

"Crap! I activate my Trap card, Negate Attack!" Rua quickly announced as Skiel opened fire. "This card stops Skiel's attack and ends the Battle Phase!"

Just as the intense beam of blue light from Skiel's cannon was about to hit Rua, a large vortex appeared in front of the green-haired boy and sucked the energy in. When Skiel's attack finally ended, the vortex disappeared. Rua let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"Your trap was a futile maneuver," Ruka declared. "Unit Ruka now activates the effect of Meklord Controller of Skiel. Once per turn, Controller of Skiel can inflict 200 points of damage times the number of Meklord monsters on the field. Because there are seven Meklord monsters on the field, Controller of Skiel's effect does 1400 points of damage. However, because Unit Ruka controls Meklord Emperor Skiel, the effect of Meklord Metropolis doubles the damage inflicted using card effects."

The Skiel Controller drone fired a barrage of blue energy balls across the field at Rua. Rua cried out in pain as the attack knocked him to the ground and his life points plunged from 4000 to 1200.

"You have only made things harder on yourself," Ruka told him. "On the next turn, Unit Hitomi will eliminate you."

Just as Rua got back to his feet, he suddenly heard the engine of a D-Wheel coming from behind. Rua and the others looked as Yugo's motorcycle flew off the steps that Rua had run down earlier to get to Ruka.

"My turn!" Yugo declared as he drew a card from his deck.

"Intrusion penalty," spoke a computerized voice from Yugo's D-Wheel. "2000 life points will now be deducted."

Suddenly yellow bolts of electricity from his D-Wheel shocked Yugo, reducing his life points to 2000.

"Yugo! What're you doing here?" a surprised Rua asked.

"Well I heard you needed help, so here I am," Yugo told him. "Now let me handle this! For my first move, since I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

The small train of red mechanical tops materialized on Yugo's part of the battlefield.

"Because Terrortop was just summoned to the field, I use its effect to add Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice to my hand!" Yugo announced. "Now I summon Red-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

Yugo's giant yellow metal die appeared on the field next to Terrortop.

"Now because Red-Eyed Dice was summoned to the field, I use its effect to change Terrortop's level from three to six!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level six Terrortop for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange before changing into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Terrortop and changed it into six white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flash and became a pillar of white light that shot up into the sky as it expanded outward. The pillar of light soon faded and Yugo's cybernetic dragon emerged with a roar.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yugo announced.

"Your intrusion in this duel is irrelevant," Hitomi declared. "Your dragon will not help you the way it did before."

"What the heck is with all the people around here?" Yugo asked. "Not only are you two girls using the same kind of decks as that robot I dueled yesterday, you're all acting like that robot too."

"It seems you and the boy, Rua have still failed to comprehend just what we all are," Ruka observed.

"The two girls who you see before you are merely extensions of a single mind," Hitomi added.

"We are as one, as is everyone in this city," Ruka and Hitomi said together in unison.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Rua asked. "Ruka, you haven't been making any sense at all since this duel started!"

"It seems you still do not understand," Hitomi and Ruka said all together with all of the people who had been watching the duel, almost as if they were some kind of chorus. "There is no Ruka. That girl is only part of a much larger being. We are Iliaster. We are the people of this city. We are of one mind and one thought. There is no individuality among us. Each of us is part of a single consciousness."

"Wait a sec! So… you're saying that the brains of everyone in the city are connected together like some kind of computer?" Yugo realized.

"At last you comprehend us," the chorus confirmed. "The minds of every man, woman and child in this city are now as one. We are the ultimate solution to the problems that once plagued Neo Domino, and the key to humanity's salvation."

"I'm totally lost again," Rua spoke. "What do they mean that they're the solution to the problems of this city?"

"Because of us, the division between the Tops and the Commons has been totally erased," the chorus explained. "In time, the unchanging conflict between those two social casts would have continued to escalate until it destroyed the city. Now that chaos has been replaced with harmony."

"I get trying to unit the Tops and the Commons, but couldn't there have been some other way?" Yugo asked.

"There is no other solution besides this collective," the chorus told him. "The fact is that human beings each have a natural desire to compete and dominate one another. The division between the Tops and the Commons are the most extreme example of how destructive these desires are. The competitive nature of this city's society would've eventually led to an uprising that would've cause more destruction. The wars among countries are also examples of how destructive these human desires are. In the end, we will erase all those desires and replace destruction and chaos with harmony."

"Wait, are you guys saying you're going to take over the world or something?" Rua asked.

"A rather childish description of our goals, but an accurate one," the chorus confirmed. "For the moment this collective is limited to this city, but in time after our resources grow we shall assimilate all other societies in this world into our collective. All will be one with Iliaster."

"But that's nuts! Ruka didn't ask to be part of this collective of yours!" Rua pointed out. "And I'm sure that girl, Hitomi never asked either!"

"That's right! You didn't give anyone in this city a choice!" Yugo told them. "You just captured everyone and plugged them into this collective of yours against their will! Now they're just a bunch of mindless robots! I don't know who it is that's pulling the strings behind this collective or whatever it is, but you had no right to do this!"

"Choice is irrelevant," the collective declared. "What we are doing is for the greater good of humanity. This existence is the only way that the human race can survive. Otherwise, humanity's competitive desires will lead to mutually assured destruction."

"What a load of crap!" Yugo declared. "Listen up, you mind controlling bastard! Once Rua and I finish this duel, I'm gonna find where you are and punch your lights out!"

"You will not have that chance," Hitomi declared as she drew her next card. "Unit Hitomi summons Meklord Controller of Wisel in Attack Mode."

A one-eyed white probe materialized on Hitomi's part of the battlefield.

"Due to the effect of Controller of Wisel, all of Unit Hitomi's other Meklord monsters besides Meklord Emperor Wisel can make attacks," Hitomi announced. "Furthermore, Controller of Wisel raises the ATK of all Meklord Army montsers by 500 points, meaning that the ATK points of both Army of Wisel monsters rise to 3000."

"And the ATK of both Army of Skiel monsters rise to 3100," Ruka added. "In addition, the ATK points of Meklord Emperor Skiel rise to 5700 due to the effect of Meklord Metropolis."

"And the ATK points of Meklord Emperor rise to 3900," Hitomi announced. "Unit Hitomi now activates the effect of Meklord Emperor Wisel to equip it with Clear Wing Synchro Dragon."

"Nice try, but I activate Clear Wing's effect!" Yugo announced. "When a level five or higher monster is targeted by a monster effect, Clear Wing negates that effect and destroys the monster! Dichromic Mirror!"

"That tactic will not work this time," Hitomi declared. "Unit Hitomi activates the Trap card, Meklord Domination. When the effect of a monster is activated in response to the effect of a Meklord Emperor's effect, Meklord Domination negates that monster effect and deals 500 points of damage. The effect of Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is canceled."

"Not so fast! I activate the Counter Trap, Crosswind Counter!" Yugo announced. "When the opponent activates a Spell or Trap card in response to the effect of a Synchro Monster I control, I can banish a Speedroid from the Graveyard to negate that card's effect and destroy it! I banish Terrortop from the Graveyard to negate the effect of Meklord Domination!"

The large representation of Hitomi's Trap card shattered into particles of gold light as Wisel's chest opened up. As the white machine emperor fired its energy cables at Clear Wing, the cybernetic dragon's wings lit up with circuit paths before firing an intense blast of energy. Wisel's cables were repelled and the blast kept going and entered Wisel's chest. In an instant, Wisel exploded with a blast of fire and smoke.

"Clear Wing gains the original ATK points of whatever monster it destroys with his effect until the end of the turn," Yugo announced. "Meaning Clear Wing's ATK is now 5000. Not only that, the ATK of all the Meklord Army monsters drop by 500 now that Wisel is no longer on the field. I activate the second effect of Crosswind Counter! By banishing Crosswind Counter from the Graveyard, I can target a Wind monster I control and one of my opponent's monsters. The monster with the lowest ATK is destroyed and my opponent takes the difference in those monsters' ATK points as damage! I target Clear Wing and one of your Meklord Army of Wisel monsters!"

Clear Wing roared and a twister of green wind formed around his body. The twister expanded outward and struck one of the Wisel soldiers, causing it to explode. Hitomi's life points dropped from 600 to zero as a result of the attack. Suddenly the device covering Hitomi's left ear began to let out sparks and she let out a chilling scream before collapsing to the ground. The pinkette's body did nothing but twitch as the monsters she still had out on the field all vanished.

"Holy crap!" Rua exclaimed. "What the heck just happened?"

"I guess beating her caused her to short circuit, just like when I beat that robot yesterday," Yugo assumed.

"So… does that mean that the same thing will happen to Ruka if we beat her?" Rua asked.

"Due to Unit Hitomi's monsters no longer being on the field, the ATK of Meklord Emperor Skiel drops to 4900," Ruka announced. "Furthermore, the ATK of both Army of Skiel monsters drop to 1800. It is now your turn, Rua."

"Yugo… I'm not sure if I can do this," Rua told him. "I mean I think I can beat her, but if I do… Ruka could end up seriously hurt."

"Don't back down now, Rua," Yugo told him. "I'm sure you can save your sister if you just have faith in yourself. I know you can do this, so don't start doubting yourself now!"

"Okay… here it goes," Rua declared as he took a deep breath and drew his next card. "First I play the Spell card, Spellbooks from the Pot! With this card, all players draw three more cards from the deck. Next I summon Morphtronic Remoten in Attack Mode!"

As soon as Rua's giant iPod appeared on the field, its eyes appeared on its screen and its limbs extended from the sides of its body.

"Get ready, Ruka. I'm gonna summon your best monster," Rua announced. "I tune the level three Remoten into the level four Stereon for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

The word, Tuning appeared on Remoten's screen before its body changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Stereon and transformed the stereo robot into four white stars.

"Divine light of creation, shine forth and bring new life to the land!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! A regale birth! Level seven! Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon!"

The stars flashed into a pillar of white light that shot into the sky and expanded outward. After a few moments the light faded to reveal a blue serpentine dragon with orange eyes and long very well developed arms. The feminine dragon had two golden fins on the sides of her head, and covering her forehead was a golden crest with a red gemstone. Long white hair with small pink flowers tied in it grew from the back of the dragon's head. Growing from the dragon's shoulders were two large insect-like wings colored like a stained glass window. Covering the dragon's chest was a piece of golden armor styled to look like an ankh with a purple gem fitted into the top.

With the appearance of Rua's new dragon, Clear Wing let out a roar that echoed across the field. Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon roared back in reply, and suddenly Yugo's heart began to race. At the same time, Yugo felt a painful burning sensation on his back.

"When Ancient Fairy is Synchro Summoned, she raises my life points by 500 times the number of specially summoned monsters on the field other than herself!" Rua announced. "Right now the other specially summoned monsters are Meklord Emperor Skiel, one of your Army of Skiel monsters, and Yugo's Clear Wing Synchro Dragon. That means I gain 1500 life points!"

Ancient Fairy flapped her wings and sparkles of light rained down on the field. The sparkles of light caused Rua's life points to rise up to 2700.

"You remember Ancient Fairy, don't you Ruka?" Rua asked. "You lost this card when you were taken, but I managed to save it for you. And now I'm going to use it to bring you back!"

"The presence of that dragon… is… irrelevant," Ruka declared, though her left eye seemed to twitch because of Ancient Fairy being on the field.

"I activate Ancient Fairy's other effect!" Rua announced. "Once per turn, Ancient Fairy can destroy a Field Spell card on either player's field, then let me special summon a monster from my Graveyard for every Synchro Monster on the field! I destroy Meklord Metropolis to summon Morphtronic Remoten and Morphtronic Videon from the Graveyard in Attack Mode!"

Ancient Fairy let out another roar as her body gave off an explosion of multicolored light. The builds that made up Meklord Metropolis suddenly dissolved and rays of sunlight burst though the dark clouds above. In moments Yugo and the others were back in the schoolyard, only a field of grass was growing from the concrete ground. A pair of giant flowers sprang up from Rua's part of the battlefield, and as they bloomed Remoten and Videon emerged from the blossoms in their robot forms.

"I tune the level three Remoten into the level four Videon for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rua announced.

The word, Tuning once again appeared on Remoten's screen before its body turned into three rings of green light. The rings encircled Videon and changed it into four white stars.

"Abandoned guardian from a forgotten age! Be revived here and now to defend world peace!" Rua chanted. Synchro Summon! Awaken! Level seven! Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that expanded outward. In moments the light faded to reveal Rua's battered mechanical dragon. Clear Wing let out another loud roar as soon as Power Tool appeared. Ancient Fairy let out another roar as a reply and Power Tool's broken eye began to blink rapidly. Yugo's heart suddenly felt like it was going to explode. Rua glanced over at Yugo and finally noticed that the young turbo duelist was clutching his chest. The green-haired boy also noticed that a crimson light seemed to be coming from Yugo's back, though he couldn't get a clear look at what was causing it.

"Uh, you okay Yugo?" Rua asked.

"I'm fine… don't worry about it," Yugo told him. "Just focus on saving Ruka."

"Despite the loss… of Meklord Metropolis… the ATK of Skiel is still at 4300," Ruka announced. "Furthermore… despite having zero ATK points, Meklord Controller of Skiel cannot be attacked while Meklord Emperor Skiel is on the field."

"None of that matters, Ruka. I activate the Spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Synchro Monster that's still equipped to Skiel!" Rua announced.

A large twister of wind suddenly appeared around Skiel and caused explosions to go off inside the bird-like robot's chest. Black smoke rose from Skiel's chest as the twister finally disappeared.

"Now Skiel's ATK is back to 2200, which means that Power Tool is now a hundred ATK points stronger than it," Rua announced. "Power Tool, turn Skiel to scrap metal! Crafty Demolition!"

Power Tool flew across the field and used his backhoe claw to tear off Skiel's head. Both pieces of Skiel exploded as a result of the attack and Ruka's life points fell to 1600.

"Now that Skiel is gone, Controller of Skiel is wide open for attack," Rua announced. "Ancient Fairy, attack Controller of Skiel and end this! Everlasting Sunlight!"

Ancient Fairy let out another roar and fired a beam of golden light from the gemstone on her chest. The Skiel probe was struck by the beam and exploded in an instant. Ruka's life points plummeted to zero, and she let out a scream of pain as the device covering her left ear began to spark. Ruka fell to the ground as the monsters that were left on the battlefield vanished. Yugo's heartbeat returned to normal and the light from his back faded to nothing.

"What the heck was that?" Yugo wondered as he caught his breath. "It felt like my back was on fire for some reason."

"Ruka!" a worried Rua called as he ran over to his fallen twin.

Rua knelt down to pick Ruka up, but to matter what he did he could not wake her. As he had feared, losing the duel had affected Ruka in the same way Hitomi had been affected.

"Your victory is irrelevant," the chorus of spectators declared. "A squadron of security droids has been dispatched to this location. One way or another, you will submit to our collective. Resistance is futile."

"Crap! Now what do we do?" Yugo asked.

"Yugo! We gotta get outta here!" Rua told him. "And we gotta get Ruka to a doctor, or… somewhere!"

"I know, but how are we supposed to do any of that?" Yugo asked. "For one thing, this place is gonna be swarming with robots here pretty soon. Plus I don't think I can carry both you and your sister on my D-Wheel, not to mention that Hitomi girl. I'm not sure there's a way out of this."

"There has to be!" Rua told him. "Come on! You gotta think of something!"

Yugo tried frantically to figure out some path of escape out of their current predicament, but he could think of nothing. The wall around the schoolyard seemed impenetrable, and all of the gates out where about to be flooded with security droids. Just as it seemed like Yugo was about to give up hope, he suddenly heard the sound of a D-Wheel engine. Yugo looked up and saw a black D-Wheel sailing through the sky. The vehicle had what appeared to be large wings on its sides, and the front end of it bore a resemblance to a bird.

The D-Wheel landed a few feet away from Yugo and Rua's location and zoomed right over to them. It was then that Yugo got a good look at the rider. He had on a brown vest with a sleeveless orange shirt and a pair of dark-blue jeans. The rider's face was covered with yellow markings, and he had on a black riding helmet with small wings on the sides.

"No way!" Yugo exclaimed. "Crow! Is that really you?"

"Hi Yugo. Long time no see," the rider known as Crow responded. "Looks like you could use some help."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm sure that many of you have realized that the version of Iliaster is basically a ripoff of the Borg from _Star Trek_. I know that's not very original of me to do that, but I realized having a Borg-like Iliaster really fit what I wanted to do with this story. Part of the concept behind this story was to have Yugo fight a villain who had conquered the city. The villain in question was someone who wanted to end the division between the Tops and the Commons, but went about doing it in a very extreme way. Originally I was going to have the story so that the city was simply conquered and its citizens were merely oppressed, but as I thought about that idea more and more, I realized that it simply didn't go far enough.

That's sort of when it hit me that a hive mind like the Borg would be the most extreme solution to the divide between the Tops and the Commons. Plus it gave the story a much darker atmosphere that I felt it was lacking. Believe it or not, this revelation came to me while I was rereading the fifth volume of the original _Sailor Moon_ manga late last year. Weird, huh?

Please review and let me know what you think.


	5. Underground

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 5: Underground

"Crow, what're you even doing here?" a stunned Yugo asked. "How come you're not part of this Iliaster collective or whatever it is?"

"There's plenty of time to explain that later," Crow told him. "Right now, we gotta get out of here."

"We can't leave without my sister!" Rua told Crow.

"Or without that Hitomi girl," Yugo added. "I don't think either of us can carry both Rua and the girls out of here on our D-Wheels."

"Relax, buddy. You really think I cam here alone?" Crow asked with a smirk.

As if on cue, another D-Wheel sailed through the sky and landed in the schoolyard not far from where Crow had landed. The D-Wheel was colored dark-yellow and purple. The rider meanwhile had on a black, blue and yellow riding suit over a grey shirt, along with brown boots and gloves. On his head was a brown helmet with a green visor.

"Yo Shinji! Over here!" Crow called. "Looks like we've got some hurt kids to take with us!"

The rider known as Shinji quickly drove over to where the others were and took a look at Hitomi and the twins. "Oh boy. This is probably gonna make our escape a little harder."

"Can't be helped man," Crow told him. "I'll take the girl with the pigtails, and you get the other girl. Yugo, I think we'll have your little buddy there ride with you. Now let's get moving!"

As Crow and Shinji grabbed Ruka and Hitomi, another pair of D-Wheels landed in the schoolyard. Yugo instantly recognized the D-Wheels as the type belonging to officers from city security, and their riders were fully dressed in security uniforms. One of the two officers was large and muscular, and had a large pronounced scar on his cheek.

"What the hell? Security officers!" Yugo exclaimed. "What're they doing here?"

"Don't worry! These guys are on our side," Crow assured him. "Ushio! We've got Yugo, so we better book it!"

"You don't have to tell us twice!" the officer with the scarred cheek responded. "Sid and I will take the lead! You and Shinji should ride behind your friend there and cover him!"

"Roger that!" Crow replied. "Now lets move it!"

With that, Yugo mounded his D-Wheel with Rua and followed after the two security officers. Crow and Shinji rode right behind them with a still unconscious Ruka and Hitomi. As the five drove towards a corner of the wall, the nearby gate opened up and several security droids like the one Yugo had faced the day before started to flood in.

"Um, do you guys have some kinda plan? Because it seems like we're about to crash into that wall there," a panicked Rua pointed out.

"Don't worry, kid. We've got this," Ushio assured him.

"Let me handle this one, old-timer," Sid told Ushio as he activated the duel disk function of his D-Wheel and drew a card from his deck. "I summon Jutte Lord in Attack Mode!"

Materializing in the air next to Sid's D-Wheel was a warrior with green eyes and a face painted white and red like a kabuki actor. He had on a black conical metal hat and a long green coat with brass-colored trim, along with black gloves and a long black armored skirt. A pair of Japanese swords was tucked in under the warrior's belt, and in his right hand was a grey club-like weapon.

"When Jutte Lord is summoned to the field, I can summon another Jutte monster from my hand!" Sid announced. "I summon the Tuner monster, Jutte Fighter!"

Appearing next to Jutte Lord was a short man with large round glasses and black hair in a style from feudal Japan. He had on a yellowish kimono with a sleeveless red jacket, and tied to his back was a large black cylindrical grenade. In his right hand, the short warrior carried a club-like weapon similar to the one Jutte Lord had.

"I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level four Jutte Lord for a level six Synchro Summon!" Sid announced.

Jutte Fighter's body flashed orange before changing into two green rings of light that surrounded Sid's other monster and changed him into four white stars.

"The righteous cannon of the just fires across the battlefield! It's sound echoes through the land and strikes fear in the hearts of the wicked!" Sid chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level six! Goyo Catapult!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of white light, clearing to reveal a warrior clad from head to toe in thick futuristic battle armor colored blue, green and grey. He had a red visor over his eyes, and on the back of his helmet was black hair styled like Jutte Fighter's. In his right hand, the armored warrior carried a grey club like the one wielded by the two monsters that had summoned him, while his left hand was a blue blaster with three grey barrels. On the warrior's back was a gigantic blue cannon.

"I activate Goyo Catapult's effect!" Sid announced. "I discard a monster from my hand to deal damage to the opponent, or in this case… blow a hole in the wall up ahead!"

On cue, Goyo Catapult fired a shot from the cannon on his back at the incoming wall. The shot caused a huge explosion that was big enough for the five D-Wheels to pass through. In moments, Yugo and the others were out on the open road.

"Not bad, huh?" Sid asked.

"Don't get so cocky, hotshot," Ushio told him. "In case you haven't noticed, we're nowhere near out of the woods yet."

Suddenly on the road behind the group, a squad of ten security droids on D-Wheels had shown up. Each of the robots had already summoned had least one Meklord Army of Wisel monster.

"Oh great!" Yugo exclaimed. "Now what?"

"Relax. The situation is totally under control," Sid assured them. "I activate the Spell card, System Down! By paying 1000 life points, this card banishes all Machine-Type monsters on my opponent's field and in their Graveyard!"

The white Wisel soldiers all began to spark with blue electricity and exploded one by one with the activation of Sid's card. Despite the loss of their monsters though, the security droids continued their pursuit.

"Crow! I think it's time we lay some cover!" Shinji recommended.

"You read my mind!" Crow agreed. "Let's do it!"

Suddenly the back of Crow and Shinji's D-Wheels let out trails of thick blue smoke. The smoke cloud quickly became so thick that the security droids stopped in their tracks.

"Ushio! How long to the entry point?" Crow asked.

"We're almost there!" Ushio answered. "Just a few more seconds!"

After a few more moments, the five D-Wheels turned down an exit off the highway that went into a large rectangular tunnel. Yugo and the others drove a few feet down the tunnel until they reached what appeared to be a large elevator. Once Yugo and the others were all inside the elevator compartment, a pair of large metal doors slammed shut behind them and Sid's Goyo Catapult disappeared. Ushio pressed a button on the controls of his D-Wheel and the elevator began to move downward.

Crow let out a heavy breath of air as he removed his helmet, revealing his head of orange hair. "Man! That was a little too close back there."

"What'd you expect? We went into one of the most heavily guarded facilities in the city," Shinji pointed out, revealing a head of purple hair with strands of blue at the base.

"Is someone finally going to fill me in on what the hell is going on?" Yugo asked as he removed his helmet.

"Right, right. I'm sure you've probably got like a million questions," Crow realized. "First of all, I guess some introductions are in order. Yugo, I'm sure you remember my old buddy, Shinji Weber."

"And I'm Tetsuo Ushio," the scarred security officer spoke as he removed his helmet and sunglasses. "Crow here has told us quite a bit about you."

"And I'm Sid Patterson, better known as Duel Chaser 227," the other security officer proudly announced. "Of course you've probably already heard of me. I am after all, this city's finest duel chaser."

"Never heard of you," Yugo told him.

"You duel chasers all seem alike to me, and I was from the Tops," Rua admitted.

"What the… why you little punks!" Sid protested.

"Can it, Sid. Nobody cares about your rep," Ushio told him. "Especially not with the way the city is now."

"Crow, why are you and Crow with these two security officers?" Yugo asked.

"That's a pretty long story," Crow answered. "First though, I'd like to know where you've been all this time? How come you weren't assimilated like the rest of the city?"

"You should ask Ushio and Mr. Wonderful there," Yugo answered. "When Security arrested me, I was knocked out and thrown in some kind of stasis pod. Yesterday when I finally woke up, three months had passed and the city had turned into that robot colony."

"Stasis pod?" Shinji repeated with a raised eyebrow. "Ushio, do you or Sid know what he's talking about?"

"Not a clue," Ushio answered. "I've never heard of criminals being put in stasis before. Unless of course if it was some special order by the head of security or the city council. It if was, we'll probably never know at this point."

"I see… well, I guess I better fill you in on what you slept through, Yugo," Crow began. "I'm guessing your little pal already told you a bit about how the city was taken over by those robots and that pyramid. During the chaos of the robot attack, Shinji and I ended up saving Ushio here from getting creamed out on the highway. The three of us realized that whatever was going on was a problem for both the Tops and the Commons, so we decided to work together and save as many people as we could."

"I gathered all the other officers that I could find, and with the help from Crow and his friends, we were able to get a lot of people in the city to a safe location," Ushio added.

"So is that where we're heading right now?" Yugo asked.

"That's right," Crow confirmed. "We're about to go into what was once an abandoned level of the garbage processing facility that's been under the city for years. So far Iliaster has never tried raiding the place, probably because it doesn't think there's anything worth going down here for."

At long last the elevator came to a stop. Yugo and the others disembarked the elevator and went into a massive underground cavern. Crow led the others towards a chamber off to the left of the elevator that appeared to be some sort of parking garage. Yugo noticed several other D-Wheels of different design, along with a few cars and trucks. A good chunk of the vehicles actually belonged to city security.

As soon as Yugo and the others parked their vehicles, Crow led them out of the parking garage and into the main section of the cavern, which old conveyer belts and other pieces of equipment that had once been used for processing the city's garbage scattered all around. Ushio and Sid had taken over the duty of carrying Ruka and Hitomi. When the entered the main area of the cavern, Yugo saw that it was packed with people of all ages. Many of them were together in their own little groups, and a few of them were even having duels.

"Wow! You were able to save this many people?" an amazed Yugo asked as he looked around.

"We weren't able to save all the people that we wanted to save," Crow answered bitterly, "buy yeah. We were able to save this many."

"So are all these people from the Commons?" Rua asked.

"Not all of them," Shinji revealed. "A good chunk of them are actually from the Tops. I never thought in a million years that I'd be living side by side with those snobs, but here we are."

"The ironic thing about all this is that Iliaster really has achieved its goal of eliminating the division between the Tops and the Commons. Just not the way that it wanted," Crow remarked. "Down here we're pretty much all the same. Whether they're from the Commons or the Tops, everyone who's survived has ended up in the same gutter."

"Hey Crow!" a voice suddenly called.

Yugo and the others looked, and approaching the group was an unshaven man with greyish-brown hair. He had on a long-sleeved white shirt with a green vest and long black pants.

"Saiga! Right on time," Crow responded.

"So your little kamikaze mission paid off, I see," Saiga observed as he noticed Yugo, Rua and the girls.

"Yep. You and Sid do me a favor and take these two girls to Dr. Schmidt," Crow requested. "Let's see if we can really get 'em unplugged from that damn collective."

"On it," Saiga replied as he took Ruka from Ushio.

Sid followed Saiga with Hitomi still in his arms further into the cavern.

"Is Ruka gonna be okay?" a worried Rua asked.

"Relax. We've got a few pretty good doctors here," Crow assured Rua as he put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure they'll have those kids patched up in no time."

"There's one thing I don't get, Crow. How is it that you and the others knew to come after me?" Yugo asked.

"We always hold out hope that other people besides us survived the takeover of Iliaster," Crow explained. "That's why are friend, Saiga hacked into the city computer system and monitors for active duel signals. Anyone dueling up top usually turns out to be another survivor, but they usually get taken out before we have a chance to get them. You of course are a different story, thanks to that dragon of yours. It's thanks to your duels that we were able to find out exactly where you were."

"Yugo?" a familiar voice suddenly spoke.

Yugo looked, and standing a few feet away was a young woman about his age with shoulder-length aqua-green hair and orange eyes. She had on blue studded earings and a black choker with a blue gem hanging from it. The rest of the girl's outfit consisted of a blue and white jacket with pink pads on the elbows and shoulders, a pair of pink shorts, and white and pink thigh-high boots with pink kneepads. Around her right wrist was a distinct silver bracelet with a green gemstone. Yugo instantly recognized who the girl was.

"Rin…" Yugo spoke just before running over to her. "RIIIINNN!"

As Yugo ran to hug his long lost friend, Rin met him about half way and hit him with a flying knee to the gut. Yugo had the wind knocked out of him from the hit and staggered backward after being struck. Somehow he managed to remain on his feet.

"Whoa!" a shocked Rua exclaimed. "Um… Yugo told me about a girl he knew named Rin, but thought he said they were friends."

"They are. The two of them are just like this sometimes," Crow confirmed with a deadpan expression.

"I'm impressed that the kid's still standing after taking a hit like that," an equally stunned Ushio remarked. "I've had to hit a few perps like that in the past when they got outta hand, and usually they'd stay down for at least an hour or two."

"Well, Yugo's built up a lot of endurance to this sort of punishment over the years," Crow explained.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you these past three months?" an irate Rin asked Yugo. "You go off on your own for that stupid duel and end up disappearing into thin air! Ever since the city got taken over I've thought that some of the most terrible things might've happened to you! Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Yugo attempted to respond, but was still trying to catch his breath.

After a moment, Rin began to tear up as she went over to hug him. "Yugo, you dummy!"

Yugo merely smiled and returned the hug. The two of them remained like that for several moments, totally oblivious to all the people nearby in the cavern who had been watching the awkward yet touching reunion they just had.

After a few more moments, Crow cleared his throat. "Okay Rin. Now that you've had your little moment, maybe you should show Yugo to his room. He's had a pretty long morning."

"Oh! Um… right," Rin replied as she pulled away. "Crow had me go ahead and set up a place for you, Yugo. It's right across the hall from my room."

"Great," Yugo responded. He was about to follow Rin when another question suddenly came to him. "Hey Crow… what happened to Jack? Did he end up here too?"

Crow's eyes widened upon hearing the name, but his expression quickly darkened. "Nobody knows what happened to Jack. He disappeared around the time Iliaster took over."

"Who's this Jack you guys talking about?" Rua asked. "Wait, you aren't talking about Jack Atlas, are you? Do you actually know him?"

"Yeah. Yugo, Jack and I all go back a ways," Crow revealed. "Not that it matters now."

"Boy. If we had Jack Atlas with us, we could totally take down Iliaster," Rua declared. "We should totally try and find him!"

"Forget it, kid!" Shinji told him. "Jack Atlas is a traitor and a coward. The last thing we need is someone like him helping us."

"You're wrong about Jack!" Rua argued. "He's the greatest duelist this city has ever known. There's no way that someone like him would run away from Iliaster without a fight!"

"I gotta agree with the kid," Ushio interjected. "I don't know where Jack Atlas disappeared to, but he's the kind of hero we need right now."

"The two of you would say that about Jack, being from the Tops!" Shinji argued.

"Cool it, Shinji!" Crow told him. "You know the bad blood between the Tops and the Commons doesn't have a place here. Besides, I may not agree with Ushio and the kid's impression of Jack, but I know he's not the traitorous son of a bitch you think he is."

"You're totally wrong about that, Crow!" Yugo cut in. "Jack is the reason why security arrested me and put me in that stasis pod! I went out to duel Jack that night to find out what really happened before the final match of the Friendship Cup, but when I got to the place Jack said to meet him, I only found a bunch of security officers waiting for me. Jack sold me out!"

"Yugo… is that really true?" a shocked Crow asked.

"Okay, that's enough!" Rin interrupted. "None of that matters right now! Like you said Crow, it's been a long morning. All of us could use some rest right now."

"Uh… yeah. You're right, Rin," Crow agreed. "Ushio, how 'bout you take the kid to see how his sister is doing? Shinji and I have some stuff we should probably check on anyway."

With that, Rin escorted Yugo towards a door at the back of the cavern while the others went their separate ways.

"Yugo, you should probably keep quiet about Jack from now on," Rin suggested. "A lot of the people down here are still pretty divided over whether Jack is a hero or a traitor."

"I'm gonna get back at him one of these days Rin," Yugo declared. "And I'm gonna find out what really happened that day during the Friendship Cup."

* * *

The afternoon was starting to turn to evening, and Rua had spent the last few hours in the hospital wing of the underground sitting by his sister's cot. The doctors in the underground had been able to remove Ruka and Hitomi's implants without any major difficulties, but both girls had remained in a coma ever since being defeated. Rua was starting to become very worried that Ruka might never wake up.

"Hey," a familiar voice spoke. Rua turned his head and saw that it was Yugo. "I wanted to see how you were doing. How's your sister?"

"She still hasn't woken up," Rua answered sadly. "Those doctors down here think she'll recover, but I'm not so sure about it."

"Just give it time," Yugo told Rua as he patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure Ruka will pull through."

"…Hey Yugo. There's something I've been wondering about for the last few hours," Rua spoke. "How is it that you know that Crow guy? Heck, how is it that you know Jack Atlas?"

"Crow, Jack, Rin and I all come from the same orphanage in the Commons," Yugo answered. "In fact, we all lived in the same apartment building before the Friendship Cup."

"Oh wow! So you really knew Jack before he became the city champion," an impressed Rua realized. "But why is it that you seem to hate Jack so much?"

Before Yugo could try to answer Rua's question, Ruka began to stir. In that moment, Rua and Yugo's attention became totally focused on her.

After a few moments, Ruka opened her eyes and slowly sat up. "What happened?"

"Ruka! You're okay!" Rua joyfully observed.

"Rua? Where am I?" Ruka asked. "My memory's kinda foggy. How'd I end up here?"

"None of that matters right now!" Rua tearfully told her as he pulled her into a hug. "All that matters is that you're back!"

Yugo smiled as he quietly watched the touching sibling reunion. After a few more moments, Hitomi began to stir as well.

"My head," Hitomi spoke as she slowly sat up, getting the attention of Yugo and the others. "What happened to me? Where am I?"

"It's okay. You're in what's sort of a hospital," Yugo informed the pinkette. "Do you remember anything that happened to you?"

"I'm afraid not," Hitomi answered. "My memory is pretty fuzzy at the moment."

Hitomi finally opened her eyes and looked at Yugo and the others. Rua blushed upon seeing the pinkette's eyes, which were revealed to be a pale blue like the color of the sky.

"So… who are all of you people?" Hitomi asked.

"I'm Yugo, and the girl in the cot next to you is Ruka," the young turbo duelist answered.

"And I'm, uh… I'm Rua," the green-haired by spoke as he held out his hand. "You're, uh… I mean… I'm glad you're okay."

"Well thank you, Rua," Hitomi replied as she smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Hitomi Tesla. It's very nice to meet you all."

Rua face turned an even brighter shade of red than before as Hitomi touched his hand. Ruka's quirked her eyebrow at the sight happening before her.

"Well, I think I'll give you three some alone time," Yugo decided before leaving the room.

* * *

Night had finally fallen, and Yugo had since retired to his room in the underground. The facility already had its own set of living quarters when Crow and the others got there, though those quarters were basically prison cells. The garbage processing work done down in the underground had after all been performed by criminals and people who had lost the Friendship Cup. After the survivors of the Iliaster takeover had come to the facility though, they had done their best to make the quarters more habitable for human beings. The quarters were still fairly cramped, but there was nothing that Crow or the others could do to change that.

Rin had come over to Yugo's place to have dinner and to help him get settled in. During that time, Yugo had told Rin a bit more about what had happened to him after he had gotten arrested, and about how had ended up meeting Rua. Rin meanwhile had told Yugo about some of what happened during and after the Iliaster takeover. When dinner came to an end, Yugo had moved over to sit on the red couch that someone had placed in the room while Rin cleared the table.

"You have no idea how relieved I was when I saw you here," Yugo told Rin. "Ever since I saw what the Commons had been turned into, I kept worrying about what might've happened to you."

"I worried about you a whole lot too," Rin replied. "More than once I wanted to go out into the city to try and find you, but Crow and the others wouldn't let me. They kept telling me it was too dangerous, but I get the feeling that I wouldn't have been in that much danger at all."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yugo asked.

"…It happened when those security robots first started taking everyone away," Rin began. "I was running from two of them and ended up taking a wrong turn into an alley with a dead end. The robots had me cornered. All I could do was just stand there frozen as they came towards me. Then, just when it seemed like they were about to grab me… they just looked me over a couple of times and left the alley."

"Why they'd leave you alone?" Yugo asked.

"I don't know," Rin answered. "Before I could try and figure it out, Crow found me and took me here. Ever since that time though… I don't know why, but I've felt sure that none of those robots would ever try and touch me."

"You sure about that?" Yugo asked as he let out a yawn. "I mean, maybe those robots were broken or something."

"That's what Crow and the others thought too when I told them about what happened," Rin replied as she turned around to finish putting away the dishes. "But I'm sure that it's more than that. Of course… I guess it doesn't really matter now though. I mean the important thing is that you're back and we're both safe, right Yugo? …Yugo?"

When Rin turned around, she found that Yugo had fallen asleep on the couch. It always irritated Rin a bit when Yugo fell asleep in the middle of her saying something she felt was important, but she felt she could let it slide this time after the long day Yugo had just had. Even so, Rin decided to go wake Yugo up so that he wouldn't spend the whole night on the couch and screw up his neck. Rin went over to gently tap Yugo on the shoulder to wake him up, but as soon as she tried, Yugo grabbed onto her arm and pulled her down on top of him.

"You damn robots!" Yugo called out in his sleep. "I'm not gonna let you take Rin! I'm not gonna let… not gonna…"

Rin blushed a bit at the fact that Yugo was protecting her from the security droids. She tried to get up, but Yugo had wrapped his arms tightly around her. Rin's own fatigue then began to set in, and she soon noticed a feeling that she had not been expecting. Right there in Yugo's arms, Rin felt safer than she had felt during the past three months. Before she knew it, Rin dozed off right there on the couch with Yugo.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well, Yugo's love interest has finally entered the story. Sorry it took me so long to bring Rin in. Hey, at least Yugo didn't have to go on some quest to rescue her this time like he did in the anime (boy, did that end up going nowhere). I pretty much kept Yugo and Rin's reunion the same way as it was in the anime, since for me that was the most hilarious and touching moment in the whole series. Well, right up until the whole parasite thing.

I also threw in a minor character from season two of the anime, Duel Chaser 227. For those of you who may not remember, 227 was the officer that Yugo dueled during one of the early episodes of Season 2. Yuya also dueled 227 later in the Friendship Cup (I don't know why we didn't see the Miracle Synchro Fusion card in that duel). Anyway, I thought I could use as sort of a bit character for comic relief. The name I used him, Sid Patterson, was just something I pulled out of thin air.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	6. Raided

**Author's Note:** I'm sure by now that many of you reading have seen the series finale to the ARC-V anime. That episode was... it was disappointing. Oh hell, there's no point in sugarcoating it. The ending to that episode sucked! Yugo and Rin got totally shafted! As did Yuya and Yuzu's other dimensional counterparts! Well, this sort of thing is the reason why we have fan fiction. With this project, I can at least give Yugo and Rin the kind of story that they could've had.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 6: Raided

Yugo felt something soft and pleasantly warm cuddled against him as he slowly awoke from a full night's sleep. As he gradually rose to consciousness, his nose caught what registered to his mind as the scent of flowers after a gentle spring rain. In the back of his mind, Yugo recalled that Rin sometimes had a scent like that. When Yugo finally opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Rin's head of aqua-green hair close to his face. By the time Yugo's brain had fully booted up, he realized that he was on the couch in his room with Rin asleep on top of him.

A split second later, Rin stirred from her slumber and lifted her head, noticing that Yugo was beneath her. The two of them looked at each other right in the eye for several seconds as their faces turned bright red. Eventually the two of them let out a startled cry as Rin jumped to her feet while Yugo sat straight up on the couch.

"Rin! What the heck were you doing sleeping with me on the couch?" a very flustered Yugo asked.

"Don't ask me! You're the one who pulled me down on top of you after you fell asleep!" Rin frantically told him.

"Why the heck did I do that?" Yugo asked.

"Well… I went over to wake you up, and you were having this dream where…" Rin stopped at the part just before Yugo had talked in his sleep. "Never mind what you were dreaming about! The important thing is that you grabbed my arm and pulled me down!"

"Okay, well… why didn't you get off me then?" Yugo asked.

Rin's face turned an even brighter shade than it already was. "I… well… that's not important! The point is you shouldn't grab me in your sleep! So don't do it again!"

"And just how the hell am I supposed to control what I do in my sleep?" Yugo argued.

"That is so not my problem!" Rin told him. Suddenly they both heard a knock at the door. "Crap! Whoever's there, this is not a good time!"

The person on the other side of the door disregarded Rin's request and went on inside. Rin and Yugo both became mortified when they saw that their visitor was Crow.

"Good. You two lovebirds are both here," Crow observed. "Saves me the trouble of having to track you both down."

"L-lovebirds?" Yugo repeated as his face turned even redder.

"Crow, it's totally not like that!" Rin frantically denied.

"Uh-huh," the redhead skeptically replied. "The reason I'm here is because there's going to be a meeting in the command center in about ten minutes, and I'd like you both to sit in on it."

"Uh… we'll both be there," Rin responded.

"Great! Catch you both later," Crow told them before leaving the room.

Rin and Yugo both remained frozen where they were for several moments after Crow had gone. Yugo was still trying to process that lovebird comment that the redhead had made earlier.

"Oh… dammit Yugo!" Rin exclaimed. "This is just great! Now because of you, Crow totally has the wrong idea about us! That blabbermouth will probably tell everyone what he saw here!"

"Um… what did he mean with that whole 'lovebirds' thing?" Yugo asked.

Rin scooped up a pillow from the couch that had fallen on the floor and threw it in Yugo's face. "I swear, sometimes you are impossible!"

Afterwards, Rin stormed out of the room grumbling under her breath, slamming the door behind her. A few moments after she was gone, Yugo let out a heavy sigh as he flopped back onto the couch. Yugo still had no clue what it was he had supposedly done wrong, but he was fairly certain that he was going to be paying for it for a while.

* * *

The command center for the underground was really nothing more than the old control room that the guards of the old garbage processing facility used to supervise the workers. When the survivors of Iliaster's takeover came to the underground, the more tech-savvy members of the group like Saiga had modified the command center to make it possible to make it possible to detect what was going on above ground. When Rin and Yugo finally arrived at the command center, all of the de-facto leaders of the underground had already assembled. Crow was there, as was Shinji, Ushio, Sid and Saiga. Also present in the room were two other security officers that Yugo had yet to meet. One of them had a light-brown beard, while the other had dark skin and wore a white scarf. The officer with the scarf was busy checking his teeth in a compact mirror.

"Glad you guys could make it," Crow told Yugo and Rin. "I think you both sort of know everybody here."

"I don't," Yugo told him as he pointed a thumb over at the two strange security officers. "Who the heck are those guys?"

"You're Yugo Sakaki, right?" the bearded officer identified as he came over and shook Yugo's hand. "I'm Carl Briggs. The other guy over there checking his teeth for Style Magazine is my partner, Dwayne Duffy."

"Hey! You know I have an image to maintain, man," the officer known as Duffy responded as he put his compact in his pocket. "We are two of the top officers around here. I have to make sure my teeth are at their whitest."

Briggs let out a heavy sigh. "Hey Ushio, is it still too late for you and me to switch partners?"

"You kidding? Being partnered with Patterson here is bad enough," Ushio told him. "Hell, being partnered with a chimpanzee would be better than having Duffy as a partner."

"And just what the hell is wrong with having me as a partner?" Sid asked.

"I'd give you the list, but we'd be here all week," Ushio answered.

"Yeah? Well you're no prize yourself, old man!" Sid told him.

"Okay, okay. Cool it guys," Crow told them. "Man! With guys like you on the security force, it's no wonder Shinji and I usually had an easy time fighting you guys off in the past."

"No kidding," Shinji agreed.

"Crow, why did you ask me and Yugo to be here for this meeting?" Rin asked.

"Well… the thing is Yugo being here could change a lot of things for us down here in the underground," Crow revealed. "Because of that, I wanted both of you guys here so you could have a say in what we do next."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yugo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yugo, you may not realize it right now, but you have the power to potentially overthrow Iliaster," Shinji told him. "We know from the duels you've been in recently that your dragon has the power to counter the Meklord monsters used by the security droids. This gives us a huge tactical advantage that we've never had before against Iliaster."

"He's right kid," Briggs agreed. "The fact is that none of us really have good cards that can counter the decks used by those damn robots. The best we've been able to do is have a few copies of the System Down card in our decks, but usually that's not enough."

"With the power of you and your dragon helping us, we could finally make an assault against that pyramid in the middle of the city and take down Iliaster once and for all," Shiji told Yugo. "The surface will be all ours once again."

"Now just hold on! Are you saying that you want Yugo to take down Iliaster for you?" Rin asked. "All by himself?"

"Well we would be backing him up as best we can, little lady," Duffy assured her, "but the kid is pretty much our ace in the hole."

"Yugo, you may just be the key to freeing us all from the oppression of Iliaster," Shinji told him as he put a hand on his shoulder. "We're all asking you now, will you lead us to freedom?"

"I… look, I'm flattered that you all think that I'm your ultimate weapon against Iliaster, but I think it'll take more than me and Clear Wing to take them down," Yugo answered. "In that last duel when I helped Rua, Hitomi used a card that nearly negated Clear Wing's effect. If I hadn't had a trap of my own ready for it, Rua and I wouldn't be here right now. Next time I might not be quite as lucky."

"Yugo's right. The whole Iliaster collective probably knows about Clear Wing's effect and has more than a few ways to beat it," Crow interjected. "The best thing for us to do now is just lay low for a while longer and figure out some kind of plan. We can't just go charging into that pyramid guns blazing."

"Dammit Crow! We've been laying low in this cave for too long!" Shinji argued. "With the way things are now, we're worse off than when we were being oppressed by the Tops. Now we finally have someone with us who can help us take back the city, and you just want to keep playing it safe! When the hell are you going to get over what happened during the invasion and start doing things to help us take back our lives?"

"This has nothing to do with that happened back then!" Crow told him. "I just think we need more of a strategy than just having Yugo clear the way for us!"

"I'm with Crow on this," Ushio interjected. "Maybe having Yugo with us does give us an edge, but we need to be real smart about how we take them on."

"So you just wanna sit down here on your ass too, huh Ushio?" Briggs assumed. "It's no wonder the higher-ups were thinking of putting you behind a desk right before the takeover!"

"Lay off, Briggs!" Sid cut in. "Where the hell do you get off calling my partner soft?"

"My partner only calls 'em like he sees 'em," Duffy responded. "And with a loser like you weighing him down, it's no wonder an officer like Ushio has fallen so far."

"Hey!" Saiga called as he banged his fist on the table. "If you guys ever get done with this lively little debate you have going, maybe you'd be interested in hearing my idea for taking down Iliaster."

"What do you have in mind?" Crow asked.

"You know the implants Dr. Schmidt took off those two girls that Yugo brought back?" Saiga reminded them. "The ones that linked them to Iliaster? Some of the components in them are burnt out, but they're pretty much intact. I was thinking that if I and some of the other techs tinkered with them a bit, maybe we could come up with some kind if device that could jam the signal that connects the Iliaster collective together."

"If that machine Saiga's talking about works, we wouldn't need to attack the pyramid," Rin pointed out.

"Saiga, how long do you think it'll take to make that idea of yours happen?" Crow asked.

"It depends on how long it'll take to figure out how those implants work and the kind of signal they operate with," Saiga answered. "Probably a few weeks, at least."

"Then get to it," Crow decided. "And if that plan doesn't work… then I guess we go back to arguing about attacking Iliaster head on. I think that ends the meeting."

With that, Briggs and Duffy left the command center with Ushio and Sid following close behind. Yugo and Rin began to head for the door as well.

"Yugo," Shinji called just as the young turbo duelist reached the doorway, causing him to stop. "I do hope that Saiga's plan works. But if it doesn't, I hope that you'll be prepared to do the right thing when the time comes."

Yugo said nothing and merely continued out the door. He and Rin were silent for several moments as they headed back to the living quarters.

"Aw… dang it!" Yugo finally exclaimed. "Why the hell did Shinji have to put all that pressure on me just now?"

"I know! After everything you've been through, I can't believe they put you in that position," Rin agreed. "Thank god Saiga had that idea about using those implants."

"…Hey Rin, what did Shinji mean when he told Crow to get over what happened during the takeover of the city?" Yugo asked.

"Oh… you remember those three kids that Crow looked after?" Rin asked.

"Frank, Amanda and… Tanner." Yugo recalled. "Yeah, I remember them. Why? What happened?"

"They were captured by Iliaster when the takeover happened," Rin explained. "Crow tried to save them, but somehow he screwed up. I don't know all the details about what happened, but ever since then Crow has been more cautious than he used to be. Of course that's kind of a good thing, considering all the lives that are on the line if he screws up. I mean he is one of the leaders of this resistance, after all."

"I guess…" Yugo replied. "I think I'll go check and see how Rua and Ruka are doing.

"I'll come with," Rin decided. "I never got a good chance to meet them before."

* * *

Two weeks had gone by since Yugo and Rua had come to the underground, and during that time Ruka and Hitomi had made a quick recovery from their time in the Iliaster collective. Unfortunately, Ruka had regained many of her memories from her time in the collective during those two weeks, including her duel against Rua. She was horrified by how she had been forced to try and defeat her twin so that he would either be destroyed or experience the same hell she had been living, but Rua held none of what happened against her. During those same two weeks, Ruka had also built a totally new deck, as her old deck had been lost during the takeover. Rua had managed to save some of her most important cards like Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon, but Ruka was pretty much forced to start from scratch.

That afternoon, Ruka was in the cafeteria with Rua testing out her new deck. They were using one of the tables to duel, as the doctors didn't want Ruka to duel using solid vision holograms for at least another five days, merely as a precaution. Ruka had just won her seventh duel of the day against Rua, which seemed to confirm that her deck worked.

"Boy Ruka. You certainly haven't lost your touch," Rua declared with a heavy sigh.

"If it makes you feel any better, I really think you're improving," Ruka told him.

"Hi you two," a familiar voice interrupted. The twins looked and saw that it was Rin. "Nice to see you both out and about."

"Rua's been helping me test my new deck," Ruka explained. "I'm pretty confident that it works now."

"After about twenty-five wins with the deck this week, you should be confident," Rua remarked.

"Wow! Twenty-five wins is pretty good, Ruka," Rin told her. "I think you've built a pretty powerful deck."

"Thanks, but that's about how often I usually beat Rua when we duel," Ruka revealed. "I mean he's a good opponent, but he's kind of reckless."

"I'm sitting right here, ya know," Rua reminded them.

Rin chuckled. "I can totally relate. I usually beat Yugo most of the time in our duels for the same reason."

"…Hey Rin, there's something I've been wondering about," Ruka began. "How long has Yugo been your boyfriend?"

Ruka's question caused Rin's face to turn bright red. "B-boyfriend? Oh god! Crow told you about what happened a few days ago at Yugo's didn't he? That damn blabbermouth!"

"Um, Crow didn't say anything to us," Ruka answered with a raised eyebrow. "I just assumed that Yugo was your boyfriend because of the way you guys act. I mean you guys seem like an old married couple."

"That's how it seems to me too," Rua agreed.

"Well… well you guys are dead wrong!" Rin told them. "Sure Yugo and I are pretty close, but he and I are just childhood friends! That's it! I mean… Yugo is the last guy I would want as a boyfriend! The idea of he and I as a couple is just nut!"

"Okay…" Ruka responded.

"Um… I think I should be going now," Rin decided as she tried her best to compose herself. "Ruka, if you want me to help you test out your deck more later, feel free to come find me."

"Thanks," Ruka replied.

The twins were totally silent as they watched Rin leave the cafeteria, her face still red as a tomato.

"That was weird," Ruka declared after Rin was out of the room.

"I'll say," Rua agreed. "You know Yugo kinda acted the same way once when I asked him if Rin was his girlfriend. Think it means anything?"

"Well… maybe Rin and Yugo both really like each other and aren't ready to admit it," Ruka guessed. "I've heard that happens sometimes."

"Boy! Romance sure is weird," Rua declared. "Ruka, if I ever start acting all goofy like that because of some girl, feel free to have me committed."

"Ruka! Rua!" a familiar voice called.

The twins looked and saw Hitomi quickly heading towards their table. The pinkette had on a grey t-shirt with a red vest and a short red skirt, along with a pair of light-brown shoes with black knee-high socks. Covering Hitomi's pale blue eyes was a pair of glasses with black square frames.

"Hitomi!" Rua spoke, springing up from his seat as his face turned bright red. "H-how are you? Have I told you how great your new glasses look?"

"Actually, you've said that to me about three times now, but I greatly appreciate the compliment," Hitomi answered with a cheerful smile.

"What's up, Hitomi?" Ruka asked.

"Well, I finally finished making a new deck, and I was wondering if either of you would be willing to help me test it out," Hitomi explained. "It's a Karakuri deck. I've always been a bit fascinated by the archetype, so I was thrilled when I found out there were so many cards available from it down here. I was even able to get my hands on the Synchro Monsters."

"Well whatever deck it is, I'd be happy to help you test it out," Rua volunteered. "I'm sort of a pro when it comes to testing out new decks."

"You could say he's a regular crash test dummy," Ruka remarked.

"I'm pleased that you're willing to help me, Rua," Hitomi told him, oblivious to Ruka's comment. "We can even duel in the common area. The doctors say it's okay for me to start dueling using solid vision again."

"Great! Let's spring by my room to get my duel disk," Rua decided as he left the cafeteria with Hitomi.

Ruka let out a heavy sigh as she began gathering up her cards. "Guess I need to have Rua fitted to a straightjacket."

* * *

Saiga was busy typing at his computer in the workshop that he had set up in the underground. For the last few weeks, he had been trying figure out the best way to transmit the signal that would jam the Iliaster collective. Meanwhile, sitting at one of the worktables and tinkering with Ruka and Hitomi's implants was a man with tan skin, grey eyes and a shaved head. He had a yellow triangular marking under each eye, and his outfit consisted of a black leather vest with a brown t-shirt, dark-blue jeans, black boots, and a pair of fingerless black gloves. This man was Saiga's friend and fellow technology expert from the Commons, Izzy Sanchez.

Izzy was a master when it came to building computers and other pieces of electronic equipment from junk, and was also a skilled hacker. It was the latter skill that had earned Izzy the criminal markings under his eyes. Saiga knew that if there was anyone in the underground who could help him figure out the implants and the kind of signal they used, Izzy was the guy. Izzy had been tinkering mainly with Ruka's implant, as Hitomi's implant seemed to have additional components that made it more complicated to work with. One of those extra components was the visor that was attached to the implant. The visor not only corrected Hitomi's vision, but also fed her additional pieces of information. It made sense to Izzy and Saiga that Hitomi's visor had that function, as Hitomi had told the duo she had been a sort of specialized security officer when they asked her a little bit about her time in the collective.

It had taken Izzy quite some time, but he had managed to find what he had needed to replace the burnt out components in Ruka's implant. Of course the parts he had been using were pretty much junk, but Izzy was confident that they would work.

"Okay, my man. I think we're ready to fire this thing up," Izzy informed Saiga.

"You think it'll work?" Saiga asked as he left his computer and went over to the worktable.

"No way to tell until we try turning it on," Izzy answered. "Odds are we totally burn this thing out beyond repair."

"At least we still have another implant to work with if that happens," Saiga pointed out.

"Very true, but that one is a total beast compared to this one," Izzy pointed out. "Trying to bring that one back to life could set us back a whole month or two."

"It is what it is," Saiga shrugged. "Let's just roll the dice with this one."

With that, Izzy plugged the implant into the special switch he had made for it and turned it on. Both Saiga and Izzy watched the implant with baited breath to see if it would function. Then after a few moments, the little multicolored lights attached to some of the components inside the implant began to flash.

"Jackpot baby!" Izzy cheered as he pumped his fist in victory. "Looks like we're in business."

"Now we just have to analyze the signal this thing gives out and figure out the right way to disrupt it," Saiga replied.

"Can we have lunch before we get into that?" Izzy suggested. "I don't know about you, but putting the final touches on that thing really made me work up an appetite."

"Sounds good to me," Saiga agreed.

Izzy shut off the implant and set it on the table before heading out of the room with Saiga. Right after the two of them left, a small red light turned back on inside the implant and started to flash on and off rapidly.

* * *

Conrad P. Theroux Jr. was out by the east exit of the underground trying to enjoy a cigar. The forty-four-year-old former industrialist would often come to that exit to try and get some alone time away from the riffraff of the colony. Life in the underground was much more unbearable for Conrad than most of the other survivors, as he had been use to a much higher standard of living than practically everyone else. Before the Iliaster takeover, Conrad was one of the wealthiest citizens of the Tops. His son, Conrad P. Theroux the Third was all set to marry the daughter of a former business rival, a union that would bring together to great companies and double the wealth of the Theroux family. Life for Conrad was as good as it could get. Then the takeover happened and his perfect life was shattered to pieces.

Being forced underground had only been the beginning of Conrad's sudden misfortune. It was bad enough that his immense wealth suddenly seemed to mean nothing, but not long after the takeover happened, Conrad learned that for years his son had been carrying on a secret affair with one of the maids employed in the family mansion; a worthless girl from the Commons who to Conrad was lower than a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Before, Conrad's son had started to believe that the love he shared with that wretched maid could never be, but after the takeover Conrad the Third believed that the relationship had a chance now that the division between the Tops and the Commons no longer existed. Conrad's son and the maid had gotten married in secret by a minister who had also managed to escape to the underground. Conrad about hit the ceiling when he found out about their union.

Things had gotten as bad has they could for Conrad. His fortune was more or less lost or rendered worthless, and his son had married a gold-digging street rat. Conrad swore that if those damn robots were ever overthrown and he returned to the surface, he would put everything in his life back to the way it was supposed to be. As Conrad finished his cigar, he tossed it to the ground and crushed it beneath his shoe. The grey-haired man was about to head back to the closet that laughingly served as his living quarters when he heard a loud pounding noise from the door to the elevator.

Conrad turned around, and to his surprise he saw that a large lump had formed on the door's surface, almost as if something on the other side had tried punching though it. Two more lumps appeared on the door, each accompanied by another loud pounding noise. Suddenly the doors were being pushed outward from the other side as if something was trying to force its way in. When the doors were pried open far enough, a security droid marched through. Conrad could only watch frozen in horror as two more droids marched in through. In a space that seemed like only seconds, the entire corridor was filled with droids. Conrad knew that his life was about to become a whole lot worse than it already was.

* * *

Sirens began to blare all throughout the underground as security droids began to pour in through the four entry points of the compound. Yugo and Rin had been chatting with Crow at the time the sirens began to go off, and the two ended up following him to the command center. When the three arrived, Saiga and Izzy were already present in the room along with Shinji, Sid and Ushio.

"What the hell's going on here?" Crow asked.

"We've got security droids invading the compound from all four exits," Saiga reported as he looked at one of the computer screens in the command center. "All four of the corridors have been sealed off, but I don't know for how long. The metal doors we've got sealing the place are each five feet thick, but it's probably only a matter of time before the droids find a way to cut through them."

"Has anyone gone missing?" Crow asked.

"About twelve people are unaccounted for," Sid reported, "including Mr. Conrad Theroux."

"That entitled bastard from the Tops?" Shinji asked. "Sorry to say it, but I'm not too broken up about him being captured by those damn robots."

"Hey, his son's a pretty okay guy," Saiga pointed out.

"Yeah man. Conrad the Third is married to my kid sister," Izzy revealed. "I thought the guy was a total tool at first, but he's actually pretty cool."

"Now's not the time for that kind of talk!" Ushio pointed out. "What I want to know is how these droids got in here after all this time. They have to have detected us somehow, and we've been careful not to make our presence down here known."

Izzy began checking something on one of the computer, and in seconds a look of panic formed on his face. "Oh crap! Saiga, I think we royally screwed up!"

Saiga rushed over to look at Izzy's screen, and the same look of panic formed on his face. "Dammit! The implant we took off Ruka has been giving off a steady locator signal ever since Izzy and I switched it on in the lab! It led Iliaster right to us!"

"What?" Sid exclaimed. "How the hell did you idiots let that happen?"

"Hey pal! We didn't know that those damn implants even came with tracking beacons!" Izzy told him. "They must've been put in as a failsafe in case something like this happened!" The tech genius pounded the table with his fist. "Man! I can't believe we missed something like that!"

"Let's just forget about whose fault this is for right now!" Rin interrupted. "We need to figure out what to do about this."

"I say we stand and fight!" Shinji declared.

"Are you nuts? There are probably thousands of those damn droids baring down on us right now!" Crow pointed out. "We can't just fight them all off!"

"Dammit! I'm tired of giving up ground to that damn collective!" Shinji told him.

"I am too, but this is one time we definitely have to play it safe!" Crow argued. "We have no choice but to evacuate to the mine in Crash Town."

"I'm in total agreement with Crow," Ushio declared. "Staying to fight off all those droids would be suicide."

"What's this Crash Town place you guys are talking about?" Yugo asked.

"Crow told me about it once. It's an abandoned mining town out in the wilderness beyond Neo Domino," Rin explained.

"The town has an old mine that we can use for a new base," Crow added. "In fact it'd probably make a more secure base than where we are now."

"Well then how come we haven't gone to that mine sooner?" Yugo asked.

"Because first we'd have to go out over several miles of open road to get to it," Saiga explained. "We'd all be sitting ducks for any squad of security droids that'd come after us. Of course it looks like now we don't have much of a choice."

"Sid and I will begin the evacuation," Ushio decided. "If we don't move fast, we'll all end up as Iliaster drones!"

All at once, the underground broke into chaos as the survivors hastily gathered up what belongings that they could and headed for the massive parking garage. Rua and Ruka had ended up in one of the armored security wagons with Hitomi and a few other civilians. Meanwhile as Yugo mounted his D-Wheel, he was surprised to find that Rin had a pink and white D-Wheel of her own that matched her riding suit. Once all of the survivors had boarded some mode of transportation, every car, truck and D-Wheel began to head out through a long curving tunnel connected to the garage that went deeper into the earth. After a few moments of driving, Saiga pressed a button inside the cab of the truck he was riding in, and a massive metal door opened up ahead.

The convoy went out the door and ended up on a long highway bridge that went out over the water. All of the cars and trucks were at the front of the convoy, while Yugo, Rin, Crow, Shinji, and everyone else who had a D-Wheel followed close behind. Ushio and his fellow duel chasers had taken up the rear to try and block any security droids that might try to chase them from behind.

"I had no idea that the underground had a bridge like this leading out from it," Rin remarked.

"This road was originally used to bring in supplies to the guards in the underground," Ushio explained.

"Yugo! You and Rin stay close to the convoy!" Crow ordered. "Let Ushio and the rest of his guys handle the security droids."

After the convoy had gotten a few miles out from the underground, a section of road from a neighboring bridge that was much higher up extended downward and connected to the convoy's route of escape. Three security droids on golden-yellow D-Wheels sped down the connection just as the convoy had passed it and began to give chase. These droids had a much denser build than the one that Yugo had previously fought, and were colored yellow and black.

"We've got droids hot on our tail!" Ushio observed. "And it looks like they're Granel users!"

"Granel users?" Yugo repeated.

"You remember Meklord Emperor Wisel and Meklord Emperor Skiel, right?" Crow reminded him. "Well there's a third Meklord Emperor that's a lot worse than those two, and these tin cans have decks that specialize in using it."

As the three droids began to bare down on the convoy, another convoy made up of regular security droids on D-Wheels and a few white and black vans began to speed down the bridge connection.

"I'm gonna try and shake these bastards off our tail!" Sid decided. "Briggs! Duffy! Back me up!"

Duffy and Briggs nodded and fell back with Sid towards the approaching droids.

"We are Iliaster," one of the droids announced in a cold mechanical voice. "Surrender now and we will do you no harm. Resistance is futile."

"Like hell!" Sid declared. "Let's rumble, you tin-plated bastards!"

"Battle Royale initiated," announced a computerized voice from one of the security droids' D-Wheels. "Activating Field Spell, Crossover Accel."

In a flash, the color of the surrounding area changed with the activation of the Field Spell. An explosion of white light went off in the sky above, and several Action Cards rained down onto the track.

"This is it, guys!" Sid told Briggs and Duffy. "Let's show 'em what us duel chasers can really do!"

* * *

Please review and let me know what you think.


	7. Enter the Black Rose

**Battle Royale Rules:** As some of you reading may recalled, the last chapter ended with the setup to another Battle Royale. Because of that, there are a few more rules about how duels like that work in this story that I should probably take a moment to explain.

~If a player takes control of an opponent's monster and that opponent is eliminated from the duel, that monster remains on the field in the control of its current user.

~If a monster that was originally in the control of a player that was eliminated from the duel is removed from the field, that monster is totally removed from play and cannot be summoned back to the field under any circumstances.

~When a player uses a card effect to inflict damage to the opponent, all other players in the Battle Royale take that damage.

We'll be seeing all three of these rules come into play during this next chapter. I just thought I'd put them here to prevent any sort of confusion.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 7: Enter the Black Rose

"I'll get this party started!" Duffy declared as he and the others sped down the road. "I summon Jutte Lord in Attack Mode!"

The white-faced commander of the Jutte monsters materialized in the air by Duffy's D-Wheel and swung his club.

"When Jutte Lord is summoned, I can summon another Jutte monster from my hand!" Duffy continued. "Come forth, Jutte Fighter!"

The short spectacled Tuner monster appeared on the road next to Jutte Lord.

"I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level four Jutte Lord for a level six Synchro Summon!" Duffy announced.

Jutte Fighter's body flashed orange before changing into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Jutte Lord and transformed the other warrior into four white stars.

"Behold! Tremble before the power of authority!" Duffy chanted. "Synchro Summon! An unexpected encounter, Goyo Guardian!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of white light that shot down the road that soon faded to reveal a male warrior resembling a kabuki actor. He had a face that was painted white with red markings, and his large black hair was arranged in a style from feudal Japan. The warrior's muscular white chest was painted white as well, and the lower half of his stomach was wrapped in brownish-grey bandages. His arms were covered in black baggy sleeves with very large dark-red shoulder pads, and on his back was a gigantic blue bow. He had on long tight black pants with brown kneepads and brownish-grey bandages wrapped around his lower legs, and hanging down from the front of his waist was a large brown leather breechcloth with a golden sun-shaped pattern on the front. Covering his feet was a pair of black boots with white laces. In both of his hands, the warrior held a long black whip with a grey club-like weapon tied to the end.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Duffy enthusiastically declared. "Because I have a Goyo monster on the field, I can special summon Jutte Scout from my hand!"

Materializing next to Goyo Guardian was a man riding the back of a black horse with yellow eyes. The rider had blue eyes, and his face was painted white with a red bandanna covering the lower half. Atop his head was a tin-colored conical hat, and he had on a long sleeveless green coat over a piece of black chest armor that covered a shirt with long blue sleeves. The rider had a pair of black fingerless gloves on his hands, and he had long grey pants with black boots.

"When Jutte Scout is summoned to the field, I can summon an Earth Warrior-Type Tuner from my Graveyard!" Duffy announced. "Return to battle, Jutte Fighter!"

Duffy's spectacled Tuner reappeared on the field next to Jutte Scout.

"I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level three Jutte Scout for a level five Synchro Summon!" Duffy announced.

Jutte Fighter's body once again flashed orange and changed into two green rings of light. The rings encircled the horseman and turned both him and his steed into three white stars.

"The warrior of authority pursues his target to the ends of hell! No one can escape from the reach of his justice!" Duffy chanted. "Synchro Summon! Charge on! Goyo Chaser!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of white light that shot across the road. The ray of light faded moments later to reveal a warrior with fiendish yellow eyes. Covering his face a white mask with red lines around the eyeholes and black helmet-like hair in a style similar to something from feudal Japan. The warrior had on a sleeveless dark-brown coat with large shoulder pads that had orange trim. Beneath the coat he had on a grey shirt with baggy sleeves, and a pair of brown elbow-high gloves covering his hands. The rest of the warrior's outfit consisted of a pair of baggy grey pants with brown thigh-high boots. In his hands, the masked warrior held a long black whip with a grey club-like weapon at one end and a grey weight with four blades on the side at the other end.

"Goyo Chaser gains 300 ATK for every Earth Warrior-Type Synchro Monster on the field other than himself!" Duffy announced. "Since I also have Goyo Guardian out, Goyo Chaser's ATK goes from 1900 to 2200! That ends my turn!"

"Unit GE-51 begins its turn," one of the pursing security droids announced as it drew its first card. "Unit GE-51 summons Meklord Pawn in Defense Mode."

Appearing by GE-51's D-Wheel was a chrome egg-shaped robot with a black infinity symbol decorating the front like a figure eight. Near the top of the egg was a rounded square black screen showing three red lines arranged like an angry face.

Duffy snickered upon seeing the egg robot. "That's rich! I summon two powerhouse Synchro Monsters, and the best you can do is summon an egg with only 2000 DEF?"

"When Meklord Pawn is summoned to the field, its user can add a Meklord Emperor to the hand," GE-51 announced. "Additionally, Meklord Pawn cannot be destroyed in battle with Synchro Monsters. Unit GE-51 sets one card on the field and ends its turn."

"Let me show ya how it's done!" Briggs declared as he drew his first card. "I summon Jutte Lord in Attack Mode!"

A second Jutte Lord materialized on the track by Briggs's D-Wheel and swung his club.

"Because I summoned Jutte Lord, I can special summon Jutte Fighter from my hand!" Briggs announced. A second Jutte Fighter appeared next to Jutte Lord. "I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level four Jutte Lord for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Jutte Fighter flashed orange before changing into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Jutte Lord and transformed him into four white stars.

"The beast of authority awakens to chew up the wicked! It pursues its prey to the ends of hell!" Briggs chanted. "Synchro Summon! Roar! Goyo Predator!"

The stars flashed and became of ray of light that shot down the road, fading to reveal a muscular humanoid creature with tan skin, orange-red eyes and a fanged mouth. Covering his face was a black mask with red lines and two sets of curved purple horns on the sides. The creature had a long grey beard, and shaggy grey fur covered his shoulders. His outfit consisted of a sleeveless green jacket over a short-sleeved black shirt decorated with red lines, along with long baggy blue pants and a long dark-red scarf. Hanging down the front of his waist was a long green breechcloth with a large gold sun-shape pattern decorating the front. Brownish-grey bandages were wrapped around the beast's wrists, and in his clawed right hand he held a grey club-like weapon that had a whip tipped at the end with a grey spike extending from the handle.

"Next I use the Spell card, Reinforcement of the Army to add Jutte Scout to my hand!" Briggs announced. "Now, because I control a Goyo monster, I special summon Jutte Scout!"

Another horseman with a red bandanna covering his face appeared on the road next to Goyo Predator.

"Since I summoned Jutte Scout to the field, I use his effect to bring back my Jutte Fighter!" Briggs announced. The spectacled Tuner reappeared next to Jutte Scout. "I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level three Jutte Scout for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Jutte Fighter once again turned into two rings of green light. The rings encircled the horseman and transformed both him and his steed into three white stars.

"The warrior of authority pursues his target to the ends of hell! No one can escape from the reach of his justice!" Briggs chanted. "Synchro Summon! Dash forth! Goyo Chaser!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of while light that shot down the road. In moments, the light faded to reveal a second Goyo Chaser.

"Because my partner just summoned two more Earth Warrior-Type Synchro Monsters to the field, the ATK of my Goyo Chaser goes up to 2800!" Duffy announced.

"And the ATK of my Goyo Chaser also goes up to 2800 because of his effect!" Briggs added. "I end my turn!"

"Unit GE-52 begins its turn," the second member of the security droid trio announced as it drew a card. "Unit GE-52 summons Meklord Pawn in Defense Mode."

Another egg-shaped robot identical to the first Meklord Pawn appeared on the road next to GE-52's D-Wheel.

"When Meklord Pawn is summoned to the field, its user can add a Meklord Emperor to the hand," GE-52 announced as it took another card from its deck. "Unit GE-52 ends its turn."

"In a duel like this, both sides can use the first few turns to build up a strong defense," Ushio commented from up ahead as he looked back at the duel. "Right now, both our guys and those talking toasters as doing a pretty good job with that."

"Yeah, but… those Goyo monsters may be strong, but they'll be dead meat the moment one of those security droids brings out its Meklord Emperor," Crow pointed out.

"It's a shame that Sid and the others don't have any monsters that can cancel the effect of a Meklord Emperor," Shinji remarked, as he looked right at Yugo. "Isn't that right Yugo?"

"Wait, are you saying that I should be helping in that duel?" Yugo asked.

"You and that dragon of yours are the best weapon we have against Iliaster," Shinji reminded him. "If you have the power to make a difference, a power that can protect Sid and the others, not to mention the rest of us, then isn't it your obligation to use that power when needed?"

"I…" Yugo spoke as he looked down at the duel disk part of his D-Wheel.

"Yugo, don't even think about doing anything stupid like joining that duel!" Rin cut in. "And as for you Shinji, you should be ashamed of yourself for pressuring Yugo like that! Do you really expect him to take on the whole Iliaster army by himself?"

"Right now the lines of everyone who survived the takeover are on the line!" Shinji argued. "If we go down here, there won't be anyone left to oppose Iliaster! We should do whatever we have to in order to survive!"

"Can it, Shinji!" Crow cut in. "Did you ever stop and think that those droids might be expecting Yugo to take them on? Like Yugo himself said before, they probably have a bunch of strategies ready to counter Clear Wing's effect!"

"Okay! Let's just all take a moment to take a breath and calm down!" Ushio interrupted. "I know things look as bad as they can get right now, but my security guys are tough! They'll find a way to take down those piles of junk that are after us!"

As the argument came to its conclusion, the convoy made it to the end of the bridge and reached the open road that went out across the seemingly endless wasteland beyond Neo Domino. The army of security droids that had been pursuing them remained close as they hit the vast desert.

Meanwhile, Sid drew his first card. "I summon Jutte Lord in Attack Mode!"

A third copy of Jutte Lord appeared by Sid's D-Wheel and swung his club.

"Using Jutte Lord's effect, I summon Jutte Fighter from my hand!" Sid announced. Yet another copy of Jutte Fighter appeared next to Jutte Lord. "I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level four Jutte Lord for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Jutte Fighter flashed orange and changed into two green rights of light. The rings encircled Jutte Lord and transformed him into four white stars.

"The beast of authority awakens to tear apart the wicked! It chases its prey to the ends of hell!" Sid chanted. "Synchro Summon! Roar! Goyo Predator!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of light that shot off down the road. In moments the light cleared to reveal a second Goyo Predator.

"Because I control a Goyo monster, I special summon Jutte Scout to the field!" Sid announced. Yet another copy of Jutte Scout materialized next to Sid's new monster. "I use Jutte Scout's effect to summon my Jutte Fighter from the Graveyard!"

On cue, Sid's copy of Jutte fighter appeared next to Jutte Scout

"I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level three Jutte Scout for a level five Synchro Summon!" Sid announced.

Jutte Fighter flashed orange and changed into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Jutte Scout and turned the horseman and his steed into three white stars.

"The warrior of authority pursues his target to the ends of hell! No one can escape from the reach of his justice!" Sid chanted. "Synchro Summon! Charge forth! Goyo Chaser!"

The stars flashed and became another ray of white light that soon faded to reveal a third Goyo Chaser.

"And now for my next move, I activate the Spell card, Undying Crusader!" Sid announced. "This card lets me summon a Jutte monster from my Graveyard for each Earth Warrior-Type Synchro Monster I control! Because I have two such monsters, I bring back Jutte Fighter and Jutte Lord!"

Sid's Jutte Lord and Jutte Fighter reappeared on the road.

"The effects monsters summoned using Undying Crusaders are negated," Sid continued, "but that doesn't matter, since they won't be here for long! I tune the level two Jutte Fighter into the level four Jutte Lord for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Jutte Fighter once again turned into two green rings of light that encircled Jutte Lord and transformed the warrior into four white stars.

"Behold! Tremble before the might of authority!" Sid chanted. "Synchro Summon! A surprise encounter, Goyo Guardian!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of light that shot down the road before vanishing to reveal another Goyo Guardian identical to the one that Duffy had summoned earlier.

"With the addition of my monsters, the ATK of each of our Goyo Chasers rises up to 3700!" Sid announced. "That ends my turn! Top that, you tin cans!"

"Unit GE-53 begins its turn," the third security droid announced as it drew its first card. "Unit GE-53 summons Meklord Pawn in Defense Mode."

Another chrome egg-shaped robot appeared on the road by GE-53's D-Wheel.

"When Meklord Pawn is summoned to the field, its user can add a Meklord Emperor to the hand," GE-53 continued. "Unit GE-53 activates the Spell card, Meklord Sacrifice. The effect of this card is to destroy one Meklord monster on the field. Unit GE-53 chooses to destroy its own Meklord Pawn."

A bolt of blue lightning suddenly came down from above and struck GE-53's Meklord Pawn, causing it to explode in a flash of fire and smoke. The smoke cleared, and in the destroyed pawn's place was golden-yellow in color and had a narrow head with a single red eye. On the machine's chest was a window in the shape on an infinity symbol that showed a ball of blue-green light inside the robot's torso. In place of legs, the machine had two half-dome shaped limbs that allowed it to hover in the air. Its right arm ended with a small shield, while its left ended with a large silver blaster.

"The secondary effect of Unit GE-52's Meklord Pawn activates," the other security droid announced. "When another Meklord monster on the field is destroyed by a card effect, Meklord Pawn self-destructs."

"At this time, the same effect of the Meklord Pawn controlled by Unit GE-51 also activates and causes it to self-destruct," the first security droid announced.

Both of the remaining Meklord Pawns suddenly exploded. When the smoke cleared, two other robots identical to Meklord Emperor Granel had appeared in place of the pawns.

"Not good!" Crow declared as he continued to watch the duel from up the road. "This is just what I was afraid of."

"The ATK and DEF of each Meklord Emperor Granel becomes equal to half its user's life points," GE-53 announced. "Meaning that the ATK of each Meklord Emperor Granel on the field right now is 2000. Unit GE-53 now activates the Field Spell, Meklord Metropolis."

In an instant, the vast wasteland that the convoy was driving through was replaced by the same futuristic city that Yugo and Rua had once fought Hitomi and Ruka in.

"Due to the effect of Meklord Metropolis, each Meklord Emperor monster gains 200 ATK for every other Meklord monster on the field," GE-53 continued. "Meaning that the ATK of each Meklord Emperor Granel is now 2400. Unit GE-53 summons Meklord Controller of Granel in Attack Mode."

Materializing on the road was a golden-yellow sphere with two grey circles on its sides and a window on the front in the shape of an infinity symbol. The window showed a sphere of red energy inside the machine. Right above the window was a small round black screen that displayed a red eye.

"Unit GE-53 activates Meklord Controller of Granel's effect to equip it to Meklord Emperor Granel," GE-53 announced.

The back of the sphere opened up and latched onto the thin grey midsection that connected Granel's torso to its lower half, resting snuggly behind the section of armor that projected upward from the front of Granel's waist. The two grey circles on the sides of Controller of Granel opened up and a pair of thick silver cables extended upward to connect to Granel's torso.

"Unit GE-53 activates the effect of Meklord Emperor Granel and equips it with the Goyo Guardian monster controlled by Security Officer Duffy," GE-53 announced.

The chest of GE-53's Granel opened up and cables of blue-green energy shot out to snare the limbs of Duffy's Goyo Guardian. The kabuki warrior struggled in vein as he was turned into blue-green energy and pulled inside Granel's chest.

"Due to the effect of Meklord Controller of Granel, Unit GE-53 gains 500 life points each time Meklord Emperor Granel equips itself with a Synchro Monster using its effect," GE-53 announced. "Unit GE-53's life points are now 4500, which further increases Meklord Emperor Granel's ATK."

"Those life points combined with the boost from that Field Spell and the ATK it stole from Goyo Guadrian… crap!" Briggs exclaimed. "That means Granel currently has 5450 ATK points!"

"Correct," GE-51 confirmed in its monotone voice. "Due to the effect of Meklord Metropolis, Unit GE-53 can use Meklord Emperor Granel's effect a second time each turn. Unit GE-53 equips Meklord Emperor Granel with Officer Duffy's Goyo Chaser."

The Granel Emperor's chest opened up again and its cables shot out to ensnare Duffy's Goyo Chaser. The masked warrior struggled uselessly as his body was reduced to blue-green energy and sucked into Granel's chest. GE-53's life points increased to 5000.

"The ATK of Meklord Emperor Granel now rises to 7600," GE-53 announced. "However, Unit GE-53 now activates the secondary effect of Meklord Emperor Granel. Once per turn, one of the monsters equipped to Meklord Emperor Granel can be special summoned to the user's field. Unit GE-53 summons Goyo Guardian."

Granel's chest opened up a third time and a ball of blue-green light flew out. The ball of energy changed into Duffy's Goyo Guardian, only the monster's form had changed from what it was before. His eyes had been covered by a metal golden-yellow visor with a single red eye that went back and forth across a slender black screen, just like the eyes of the security droids. His chest had become covered by a piece of golden-yellow armor with a window shaped like an infinity symbol showing a ball of crimson light inside.

"What the hell?" Duffy exclaimed. "What did you do to my monster you metal bastard?"

"Due to the effect of Meklord Controller of Granel, all Synchro Monsters controlled by the user are treated as Meklord monsters," GE-53 explained. "Which means the ATK points of all Meklord Emperor monsters on the field increase by another 200 points. Goyo Guardian now attacks the Goyo Predator controlled by Security Officer Briggs."

The Meklord Goyo Guardian swung his whip and snared Briggs's Goyo Predator. With a strong tug from the cybernetic kabuki warrior's arms, Goyo Predator was pulled over to GE-53's part of the battlefield. Briggs's life points dropped to 3600.

"Because this unit controls Meklord Emperor Granel, the effect of Meklord Metropolis increases this unit's life points by an amount equal to the battle damage its monsters inflict when destroying an opponent's monsters," GE-53 announced. "This unit's life points are now at 5400. Furthermore, when Goyo Guardian destroys a monster, its user can special summon the monster it destroys to their field in Defense Mode. Unit GE-53 has taken control of Goyo Predator."

Suddenly the body of Briggs's Goyo Predator glowed with a red light as his body was released from Meklord Goyo Guardian's whip. When the light faded, the beast warrior's original mask had been replaced by a metallic golden yellow mask with a slender black screen that showed a single red eye going back and forth. His chest had also become covered in a piece of golden-yellow armor with a window shaped like an infinity symbol that showed a ball of red energy within.

"Goyo Predator becomes a Meklord monster due to the effect of Meklord Controller of Granel," GE-53 announced. "With the presence of another Meklord monster on the field, the ATK points of all Meklord Emperor monsters increase by another 200 points. As it stands now, the ATK points of the Meklord Emperor Granel controlled by this unit are now at 5200. Meklord Emperor Granel attacks Officer Duffy directly."

Duffy began to panic as GE-53's Granel aimed its blaster at him. The duel chaser frantically looked around and saw an Action Card up ahead on the road inside a transparent multicolored bubble. Duffy sped up to grab the card, but at the same time GE-51 saw another Action Card near by. GE-51's hand launched outward from the rest of its arm at the end of a thick slithering grey cable and snared the card just as Duffy had grabbed the one he was after.

"I activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Duffy announced as GE-51 retracted its hand. "This card negates Granel's attack!"

"Unit GE-51 activates the Action Card, No Action," the security droid announced. "This card cancels the effect of Evasion."

"No way!" Crow exclaimed. "These droids know how to use Action Cards?"

GE-53's Granel fired a beam of green light from its blaster across the battlefield at Duffy. The blast knocked Duffy off of his D-Wheel and dropped his life points from 4000 to zero in an instant. With Duffy on the ground and his D-Wheel ground to a halt, the three security droids sped past him. Before Duffy could get back to his feet, the army of droids that had been chasing the convoy since the beginning of the duel enveloped him. The fallen duel chaser's scream echoed across the field.

"Duffy! No!" a horrified Briggs called out.

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed as he suddenly fell back towards the duel.

"Yugo! Don't!" Rin called.

"Joining that duel won't change anything!" Crow told him.

"Unit GE-53 ends its turn," GE-53 announced.

"My turn!" Yugo announced as he drew a card.

"Intrusion penalty," the computerized voice of Yugo's D-Wheel announced. "The player will now lose 2000 life points."

Yugo winced as his D-Wheel shocked him and his life points dropped to 2000 in an instant.

"Sakaki! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sid asked. "This isn't your fight!"

"Leave him alone, Patterson!" Briggs told him. "The kid's finally heard the call to duty. Now we can use that dragon of his to make these damn robots pay!"

"I summon Speedroid Horse Stilts in Attack Mode!" Yugo announced.

Yugo's cream-colored robotic horse materialized on the road alongside his D-Wheel.

"When Horse Stilts is summoned to the field, I can special summon a level four or lower Speedroid from my hand!" Yugo announced. "I summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

On cue, Yugo's blue metal pyramid-shaped die appeared on the road next to Horse Stilts.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level four Horse Stilts for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled then Yugo's mechanical horse and transformed it into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward. After a moment the light cleared, and Yugo's cybernetic dragon appeared with a roar.

"I never knew Duffy that well, but I'm going to make you bastards pay for what you did to him!" Yugo declared. "Clear Wing, attack Goyo Predator! Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Clear Wing let out another roar as his body became shrouded in a twister of green wind. The dragon flew higher into the air for a moment only to turn around and flew towards the Meklord Goyo Predator like a missile.

"Unit GE-51 now activates the Trap, Negate Attack," GE-51 suddenly announced. "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon's attack is canceled and the Battle Phase is concluded."

Just as Clear Wing was about to strike his target, a small vortex appeared in front of Meklord Goyo Predator and rebelled the cybernetic dragon.

"Rogue element, Yugo Sakaki. Your tactics are too simplistic to overcome our power," GE-53 declared. "We have analyzed the data from our previous duels with you and have developed stratagems to counter your maneuvers. Your resistance is useless."

Yugo cursed and looked at his hand. There was nothing more he could do with the cards he had. At the very least, the best he could do was set his Scrap-Iron Scarecrow to try and block one of the coming attacks from the droids.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yugo announced.

"Unit GE-51 begins its turn," GE-51 announced as it drew its first card. "Unit GE-51 summons Meklord Controller of Granel in Attack Mode."

Another golden-yellow spherical robot materialized on the road.

"Unit GE-51 activates Meklord Controller of Granel's effect and equips it to Meklord Emperor Granel," GE-51 announced.

On cue, the new Granel Controller latched onto the midsection of GE-51's Granel Emperor.

"Getting ready to take more of our monsters and turn them into Meklords, huh?" Briggs assumed with a confident smirk. "Well just go ahead and try! The moment you do, the kid's dragon will wipe that Meklord Emperor of yours off the field!"

"Unit GE-51 plays the Continuous Spell, Imperial Chain," the security droid announced. "This card can only be played while its user controls a Meklord Emperor monster. Once per turn, the user of Imperial Chain can target an opponent's monster. Until the end of the turn, that monster cannot use its effects. Unit GE-51 targets Clear Wing Synchro Dragon with Imperial Chain's effect."

Suddenly the chest of GE-51's Granel Emperor opened up and fired a ball of blue-green light at Clear Wing. The projectile struck the dragon and created a blinding flash of light on impact. When the light faded, Clear Wing's arms were bound to his sides by two thick bands of blue-green energy. The dragon roared as he struggled to break free of his bonds.

"Oh crap!" a stunned Yugo exclaimed. "Clear Wing!"

"No… this… can't be!" a shocked Shinji spoke.

"Dammit Shinji! This is just the sort of thing I knew would happen!" Crow told him. "Now that Clear Wing can't use his effect, Yugo and the others are sitting ducks."

"Unit GE-51 activates Meklord Emperor Granel's effect and equips it with Officer Patterson's Goyo Emperor," GE-51 announced.

Granel's chest opened up again and launched its energy cables at Sid's Goyo Guardian. The kabuki warrior was snared by the cables and struggled pointlessly as he was turned into energy and pulled into the Meklord Emperor. Soon after, GE-51's life points rose to 4500.

"Unit GE-51 uses the effect of Meklord Metropolis to activate Meklord Emperor Granel's effect a second time," GE-51 announced. "Unit GE-51 equips Meklord Emperor Granel with Officer Briggs's Goyo Chaser."

The Granel Emperor's chest opened up again and snared Briggs's last remaining monster. Goyo Chaser struggled uselessly before turning into energy and being sucked into the machine's chest. Afterwards, GE-51's life points rose to 1000.

"Damn! Now the ATK of that Meklord Emperor is at 8000," Ushio observed. "And Briggs is wide open for a direct attack."

"Why didn't that droid have its Meklord Emperor absorb Clear Wing when it had the chance?" Rin wondered.

"Unit GE-51 now activates the secondary effect of Meklord Emperor Granel and special summons Goyo Guardian," GE-51 announced.

Granel's chest opened up once more and a ball of blue-green light flew out. The light quickly took the form of Sid's Goyo Guardian. Just like with Duffy's Goyo Guardian though, Sid's monster had gone through the same cybernetic modifications.

"I think this is why," Crow spoke as he watched the duel. "Those Goyo monsters can take control of the monsters they destroy in battle. So by summoning those Goyo monsters to their control after equipping them to the Granel Emperors, they can take control of even more monsters in a single turn."

"Due to the effect of Controller of Granel, Unit GE-51's Goyo Emperor is treated as a Meklord monster," GE-52 announced. "This increases the ATK of all Meklord Emperors on the field by another 200 points, meaning that the ATK of Unit GE-52's Meklord Emperor Granel rises to 3000."

"And the ATK of Unit GE-53's Meklord Emperor Granel rises to 5600," GE-53 added.

"The ATK points of Unit GE-51's Meklord Emperor Granel are now at 5400," GE-51 announced. "Unit GE-51 activates the Spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Yugo Sakaki's set card."

A small twister of wind picked up around the large representation of Yugo's Trap card on the road. In an instant, Yugo's Trap was shattered to pieces.

"Unit GE-51 attacks Clear Wing Synchro Dragon with Meklord Goyo Guardian," GE-51 announced.

"I activate the effect of Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!" Yugo announced as the Goyo cyborg began swinging his whip. "By banishing Tri-Eyed Dice from the Graveyard, I can negate your monster's attack!"

A ghostly version of Tri-Eyed Dice appeared in the air and shattered apart to create a triangular barrier of multicolored light in front of Clear Wing. The club of Goyo Guardian's whip stuck the barrier and caused it to shatter.

"You did well to protect your dragon," GE-51 remarked. "However, the effect of your banished Tri-Eyed Dice would have been better used to protect your other comrade. Meklord Emperor Granel attacks Officer Briggs directly."

The Granel Emperor aimed its blaster at Briggs and began to power it up.

Briggs gave Yugo a small smile. "You did okay, kid. I guess even with your dragon, these damn robots are just too much for us. Sorry Duffy and I tried to pressure you into this fight before."

Granel opened fire and blasted Briggs in the back, knocking him off his D-Wheel. The fallen duel chaser's life points dropped to zero in an instant. The trio of security droids passed right by Briggs as he tried to get up.

When Briggs saw the oncoming droid army approaching him, he grinned. "Well, this is as far as I go."

"BRIIIIGGS!" a horrified Yugo called out as the droid army enveloped the fallen officer.

"Dammit!" Sid cursed as he punched his D-Wheel. "One way or another, I'm gonna make you mechanical bastards pay!"

Meanwhile a few feet ahead on the right side of the road, there was a tall chrome conical building with a ridge that spiraled up the sides and created a path. Sitting on this path half way up the side of the building was a red D-Wheel with a rider who was silently watching the duel. Much of the convoy had already passed the building without noticing anything on it.

"Unit GE-51 ends its turn," GE-51 announced. "With the end of the turn, the effect of Imperial Chain expires."

Clear Wing let out another roar as he finally broke the bands of energy that had been restraining him. Just as the five remaining duelists were about to pass the building, the mysterious observer revved up her D-Wheel and launched it off of the building. The red D-Wheel landed on the road with both wheels in between Yugo and Sid, startling them both. The two of them looked and saw that the rider was a woman wearing a revealing skin-tight red and black riding suit that was unzipped towards the top to show off her ample cleavage. She also had on a red riding helmet, and completely covering her face was a strange white mask.

"What the hell?" Sid exclaimed. "Who're you supposed to be?"

"My turn," the masked woman responded as she drew a card from her deck.

"Intrusion penalty," the computerized voice of the masked woman's D-Wheel announced. "The player will now lose 2000 life points."

The masked woman was unfazed as her D-Wheel shocked her and took her life points down to 2000.

"I summon Rose Empress Victoria in Attack Mode!" the masked woman announced.

Materializing next to the masked woman's D-Wheel was a young woman with fair skin and long wavy orange-red hair that grew half way down her back. A glittering red mask covered the top half of her face, and she had on a black long-sleeved shirt that was cut low enough to show off her ample bosom. Pinned to the front of the shirt was a ruby broach that looked like a crystal rose blossom. Red elbow-high fingerless gloves covered the young woman's hands, and around her waist was a short ruby-red skirt that appeared to be made out of rose petals. The rest of her outfit consisted of black stockings with red knee-high boots, and in her right hand was a long brown whip covered in red thorns.

"When Victoria is normal summoned, I can special summon a level four or lower Rose monster from my hand!" the masked woman announced. "I summon the Tuner monster, Rose Empress Elizabeth!"

Victoria cracked her whip and a large pile of purple roses appeared next to her on the road. The roses blew apart and their petals were scattered to the wind, and standing in place of the rose pile was another young woman with fair skin and short straight purple hair that was cut just above her shoulders. A glittering violet mask covered the top half of her face, and she had on a black low-cut shirt with long sleeves that ended with long purple frills. A purple broach resembling a crystal rose blossom was pinned to the front of her shirt, and around her waist was a short skirt made of violet rose petals. Covering her legs were black stockings and a pair of violet knee-high boots.

"When Rose Empress Elizabeth is special summoned from the hand, all other monsters currently on the field that were special summoned are unable to activate their effects!" the masked woman announced.

Elizabeth raised her right arm into the air and fired a ball of pinkish light from the palm of her hand into the sky. The ball of light exploded and even smaller energy projectiles rained down onto the monsters controlled by Yugo, Sid and the droids. The monsters hit by the lights suddenly became wrapped in brown thorny vines. Clear Wing and Sid's Goyo Chaser and Goyo Predator struggled to free themselves from their bonds.

"Hey!" Sid protested. "What's the big idea, lady?"

The masked woman ignored Sid and spotted an Action Card up ahead on the road. She sped up her D-Wheel and scooped up the card as she passed it on the road.

After looking at the card, the masked woman nodded to herself and turned her attention back to the duel. "I tune the level three Elizabeth into the level four Victoria for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Elizabeth's body flashed orange before changing into three rings made of green light. The rings encircled Victoria and transformed her into four white stars.

"Pitch-dark Flower of chilling flames! Bloom and purify this poisoned land!" the masked woman chanted. "Synchro Summon! Awaken now, Black Rose Extinction Dragon!"

The stars flashed and burst into a horizontal column of violet flames. When the flames died away, they revealed a dragon with an almost bird-like body that was covered in red rose petals. The dragon's face was white and almost looked like a skull, and from the back of its head grew three long strings of rose petals. Pieces of white armor with red trim covered the dragon's long neck, and she had five long white vine-like tails covered in thorns. Underneath the dragon's body were two white legs with long red talon-like claws.

As soon as the new dragon appeared, Clear Wing let out a loud roar. Black Rose roared back in response, and suddenly Yugo's heart began to pound hard inside his chest.

Sid quickly noticed Yugo's discomfort. "Hey Sakaki! You okay?"

Yugo's only response was to cry out as he suddenly felt a burning sensation on his back. Sid was startled to see Yugo's back start to shine with a crimson light.

"Holy crap!" Sid exclaimed. "I don't know what the hell's going on, but you either need medication or an exorcist!"

* * *

Inside the convoy truck that Rua, Ruka and Hitomi had been riding in, Ruka noticed a while light coming from the pocket that her deck was in. The green-haired girl pulled the deck from her pocket and saw that the light was coming from her Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon card. Rua and Hitomi both noticed the light as well, as did some of the other passengers next to them in the truck. As Ruka looked at the card, she seemed to go into some kind of trance.

"Ruka, what's going on?" Rua asked. "Why's your card glowing like that?"

"Ancient Fairy… she's responding to Clear Wing… and to another dragon?" Ruka responded.

"What're you talking about?" Hitomi asked.

"Wait, Clear Wing? As in Yugo's dragon?" Rua asked.

Ruka nodded. "Clear Wing is calling to Ancient Fairy and the other dragon… because he is their prince. He is the first of their kind to be born."

"Ruka, you're not making any sense," a concerned Hitomi told her. "What's happening to you?"

* * *

The emerald gemstone in Rin's bracelet had started to shine with a green light ever since Black Rose had shown up on the battlefield. She didn't know how, but Rin seemed to feel that something was happening to Yugo. Out of concern, Rin fell back towards the duel despite Crow and Ushio telling her to stay back. When Rin finally got close to Yugo's D-Wheel, she could see that he seemed to be in pain.

"Yugo, are you…?" Rin began to ask, but she stopped when she saw the light coming from Yugo's back.

The light on Yugo's back formed the shape of a circular seal that looked like a winged serpentine dragon holding a heart in its front claws.

"Yugo… what's happening to you?" a worried Rin asked.

"I activate Black Rose's effect!" the masked woman announced as she played another card on her D-Wheel's controls. "When Black Rose Extinction Dragon is Synchro Summoned, she destroys all other cards on the field!"

Black Rose let out another roar and her body gave off a blinding purple light that washed out everything in sight. When the light cleared, the city created by Meklord Metropolis had turned back into a wasteland and the monsters controlled by Sid and the droids had vanished. Despite the massive destruction though, Clear Wing was still on the field. A spherical barrier made of transparent square panels had appeared around the cybernetic dragon and was vanishing as the dust from the explosion settled. Meanwhile, the convoy had reached a bridge that went over a deep canyon.

"What? Why wasn't Clear Wing destroyed by that other dragon's effect?" Rin asked.

"The moment that Black Rose's effect was activated, I used the Action Card known as Mirror Barrier on Clear Wing," the masked woman explained. "This card prevented your friend's dragon from being destroyed by card effects this turn."

"Hey!" Sid protested. "Why the hell didn't you use that card on one of my monsters?"

"Because you Neo Domino security officers have always annoyed me," the masked woman coldly answered. "Now, after Black Rose uses her effect, I can summon a Genesis Rose Token for each specially summoned monster she destroyed to either side of the field. I summon three Genesis Rose Tokens to my field and divide the remaining tokens among the droids!"

Three large red roses with strange white stems materialized alongside the masked woman's D-Wheel. The blossoms of each rose glowed with a peculiar golden light. Another of these odd roses appeared by GE-51's D-Wheel, while the other two droids each got a pair of their own glowing plants.

"I now activate the effect of Rose Empress Victoria and Rose Empress Elizabeth in the Graveyard!" the masked woman announced. "I can special summon both Elizabeth and Victoria from the Graveyard by sacrificing a Plant-Type monster for each one. I sacrifice two Genesis Rose Tokens!"

Two of the roses by the masked woman's D-Wheel shattered into particles of gold light, and both Victoria and Elizabeth appeared in their place.

"I once again tune the level three Elizabeth into the level four Victoria for another level seven Synchro Summon!" the masked woman announced.

Elizabeth's body flashed orange before once again changing into three rings made of green light. The rings encircled Victoria and transformed her into four white stars.

"Pitch-black Flower of the underworld! Blossom now and bring ruin to the living!" the masked woman chanted. "Synchro Summon! Arise, Rose Goddess Persephone!"

The stars flashed and ignited into a horizontal column of black flames. Moments later the flames died away to reveal a young-looking woman with chalk-white skin and long wavy black hair that grew half way down her back. A black mask covered the top half of her face, and she had on a gold jacket with black trim and white frilled cuffs over a low-cut black dress that ended with a large ballroom skirt made of black rose petals. On the woman's back was a pair of large wings covered in black rose petals instead of feathers, and atop her head was a golden crown of thorns. A pair of black fingerless gloves covered the masked woman's hands, and in her right hand she held a long black whip covered in silver thorns.

"At this moment, Persephone's effect activates!" the masked woman announced. "When Persephone is Synchro Summoned, my opponent takes 200 points of damage for each Rose monster on the field! Because there are eight Rose monsters on the field, my opponent's take 1600 points of damage!"

Persephone cracked her whip of thorns and a ball of black flames rose from her body and shot into the air. The fireball exploded and flaming black petals rained down upon the battlefield. Two of the petals struck the ground by Yugo and Rin's D-Wheels, causing them both to skid and Yugo's life points to drop to 400. The barrage also hit Sid and dropped his life points to 2400. Meanwhile, GE-51's life points had fallen to 3400, while GE-52's life points had become 2400 and GE-53's life points had dropped to 3800.

"Hey!" Rin protested. "I don't know who you are, but what did you think you were doing summoning a monster like that?"

"Yeah lady! You could've killed all of us just now!" Sid agreed.

The masked woman merely shrugged. "Couldn't be helped. This is a Battle Royale, which means technically all of you are my opponents."

At that moment, much of the convoy had already passed across the bridge over the canyon. The seven duelists reached the bridge a few moments later.

"I activate Persephone's other effect!" the masked woman announced. "By reducing her ATK to zero, I can double the ATK of another Rose monster I control until the end of the turn! I drop Persephone's ATK to zero to double Black Rose's ATK from 2400 to 4800!"

Persephone's body gave off a black aura that started flowing into Black Rose. As the aura faded from the rose goddess's body, her hair turned completely white and her ATK dropped from 2700 to zero. Meanwhile, Black Rose let out another roar as she finished powering up.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Synchro Chorus!" the masked woman announced. "By discarding one card, Synchro Chorus gives a Synchro Monster an extra attack for every other a Synchro Monster on the field. I use Synchro Chorus on Black Rose, giving her the power to attack three times this turn!"

"Your tactics are in error," GE-51 remarked. "The Genesis Rose Tokens you place in the control of these units are all in Defense Mode. Your attacks will do no damage to us."

"That's where you're wrong. I activate Black Rose's other effect!" the masked woman announced. "By sacrificing a Plant-Type monster, Black Rose can make direct attack during that turn! I sacrifice my final Genesis Rose and attack the three of you directly! Black Rose Apocalypse!"

Just as Yugo, Rin, Sid and the masked woman made it to the end of the bridge, Black Rose opened her jaws and spewed out a massive storm of purple flames. All three of the droids where hit by the attack and their life points all plummeted to zero. At the same time, the dragon's attack also obliterated the bridge, sending the three defeated droids down into the canyon. With the droids defeated, the duel came to an end and the monsters that were still on the field vanished. At the same time, the glowing mark on Yugo's back vanished. As the smoke from the bridge slowly cleared, the convoy and all of the following D-Wheels came to a total stop.

"Yugo, are you okay?" Rin asked as she placed a hand on Yugo's shoulder.

"Yeah… just a little light headed is all," Yugo answered with a weak smile. "What the heck happened to me anyway?"

When all of the smoke from the explosion finally cleared, the group could see that the bridge had been totally destroyed. The army of security droids that had been chasing the convoy was waiting at the end as if trying to figure out their next move. After a few moments, the army finally retreated back towards the city.

"Holy…" Sid spoke as he removed his aviator sunglasses. "I've never seen real solid vision do that level of damage before."

At that moment, Crow pulled up by Yugo and the others with Ushio and Shinji close behind him. "What the hell was all that?"

"Excuse me, Miss?" Rin spoke, getting the masked woman's attention. "Just who are you anyway? Why did you try and help us?"

The masked woman took off her helmet, revealing a head of burgundy-red hair that was long at the front and short at the back. She then removed her mask, revealing a face with a pair of golden cat-like eyes.

"My name is Aki Izayoi," the woman revealed. "I am an emissary from the Arcadia Movement."

"The Arcadia Movement?" Shinji repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey. I think I read about you guys once before," Sid recalled. "Aren't you like some sort of weird cult?"

Aki responded to Sid's question by glaring at him, causing the duel chaser to flinch.

Ushio shook his head and sighed. "You might wanna can it, Sid. It's probably not a good idea to get on the bad side of the woman who just saved all our butts."

"And can blow up a bridge like that," Crow added. "So, Aki right? Why did you help us?"

"Our leader, Divine knew that it was only a matter of time before survivors from Neo Domino came our way," Aki explained. "He sensed you approaching our sanctuary and sent me to come get you. Now, if you will, I'd like you to come with me to our movement's castle."

"Not to sound ungrateful Miss, but why should we come with you?" Ushio asked.

"Because the Arcadia Movement may be the only hope the world has of eliminating Iliaster," Aki answered. "If any of you is at all interested in saving the world from Iliaster's tyranny, I suggest that you come with me now."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope the duel shown in this chapter was okay. It was my first attempt writing a duel involving that many players, so I apologize if this wasn't my best work. It certainly made for a much longer chapter than I thought it would be.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	8. Arcadia Sanctuary

**Author's Note:** I'd just like to thank everyone for their reviews of the last chapter. I'm very pleased that it got such good response, even if the duel wasn't as good as it could've been.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 8: Arcadia Sanctuary

After a few brief minutes of discussion, the leaders of the convoy decided to abandon their original plans to head to Crash Town and go with Aki to the Arcadia Movement. Aki led the convoy off the road and further into the vast wasteland towards the west. A little over three hours went by, and in time Yugo and the others riding at the front of the convoy with Aki could see a large white castle in the distance. The castle was of a European design and had a large silver spire sticking out of the center towards the sky. The castle only got larger and larger as the convoy came near.

"Holy crap!" Crow exclaimed as he looked at the castle. "Just how did this movement of yours build a castle like this?"

"Oh c'mon, Hogan. You know how most of those weird cults work," Sid told him. "The leaders sucker the poor saps who join their little church into signing over all their worldly possessions."

"It was nothing like that!" Aki snapped. "The movement has had several very generous investors over the years. Our leader used that money to build a sanctuary for those of us who possess psychic powers."

"Right. Psychic powers," Sid sarcastically repeated. "You guys also have a bunch of unicorns you use to ride to the moon or something? I'll tell ya something lady. I don't know what kind of B.S. religion this leader of yours sold you, but you and all those other followers of his are being taken for a ride."

"Sid, how the hell do you explain that girl blowing up the bridge like that?" Ushio pointed out.

"I… uh… okay, you got me there," Sid admitted.

"Perhaps we should remain silent for the rest of this trip," Aki suggested. "It won't be much longer until we arrive."

After another forty minutes, the convoy was only a short distance away from the castle's front gate. As they came near, Aki pulled out a flare gun that was holstered in her right boot and fired two shots into the air. The shots exploded into purple-red flames that took the shape of rose blossoms. The black steel gate of the castle of the castle opened up soon after Aki fired the shots and the convoy drove on inside. The gates slammed shut once every vehicle in the convoy had gone though, and the refugees of Neo Domino began parking their vehicles in the large courtyard.

Aki removed her mask and helmet as she dismounted her D-Wheel. "I'm going to inform Divine that you've arrived. Please wait here."

As Aki headed for the front door of the castle, Crow and the others dismounted their D-Wheels and began to group together. Saiga and Izzy had also left their respective trucks along with Ruka, Rua and Hitomi and had gone over to meet with this others.

"I gotta say Crow, I'm still not sure if coming here was a good idea," Saiga admitted.

"Neither am I, but there might be a chance that we can get this Arcadia Movement to help us," Crow told him. "I mean you saw what Aki did to those droids on the bridge. If the other psychic duelists here are that powerful, we might actually have a real shot at beating Iliaster."

"I'm with Crow on this. We should at least see if these people are really willing to help us," Shinji agreed.

"Whether they help us or not, I'm hoping that they'll let us stay here for a while," Rin interjected. "After what happened towards the end of that duel, Yugo needs some time to rest."

"Rin. I keep telling you that I'm fine," Yugo insisted. "You're making too big a deal of it."

"Too big a deal? Yugo, your back was glowing with some kind of weird symbol!" Rin reminded him.

"She does have a point, Sakaki," Sid agreed. "I saw that weird mark too. You probably need a dermatologist or some holy water or… something. I don't know."

"I think Ruka might need some time to rest too," Rua suggested. "In the back of the truck as we were trying to get away from the droids, she started acting all weird."

"That's right! And the dragon card that she had started glowing with this strange light," Hitomi added.

"Guys! I've been telling you for the past few hours that I'm fine," Ruka insisted. "I don't quite know what happened before, but I've been feeling perfectly okay."

"That may be kid, but we should probably have the doc check you and Yugo over later just to be safe," Crow suggested as he put his hand on his chin. "And… maybe we should check Rin over too."

"Me? Why would I need a checkup?" a surprised Rin asked.

"Because that mark on Yugo's back and whatever happened to Ruka aren't the only strange things to happen during that duel," Crow answered. "That bracelet of yours lit up like a Christmas tree. Both Ushio and I saw it."

"Well… okay, but that's not exactly a medical problem," Rin pointed out.

"Where exactly did you get that bracelet of yours anyway?" Ushio asked Rin. "It does look like a pretty expensive piece of jewelry for someone from the Commons to have."

"It was left to me by my father," the green-haired girl explained. "He disappeared years ago when I was very little, so I never got a chance to know him. Still… this bracelet is the only thing of my family that I have left."

"Rin's father is Leo Akaba," Crow added.

"Whoa! The guy who developed solid vision with mass?" a stunned Sid asked. "That Leo Akaba?"

"Leo Akaba was one of the greatest scientific minds in Neo Domino," Ushio recalled. "He was from the Tops, so that would explain why his family would have such pricey-looking jewelry like that bracelet. Of course it doesn't explain how Rin ended up in the Commons."

"The way I heard it, Rin's mother died not long after her father disappeared," Crow explained. "Rin had no other relatives and the company that Leo Akaba worked for owned much of his estate, so Rin was dumped in the same orphanage in the Commons as me and Yugo."

"As interesting as all that is though, that that doesn't explain why Rin's bracelet lit up," Shinji pointed out. "Rin, you don't know where your father got that bracelet, did you?"

"No idea," Rin answered. "To tell the truth, I've never really thought about it before. All I know is that the woman who ran the orphanage told me that it was from my father."

Before the conversation could get any further, Aki returned with a man who had brown hair styled into some kind of pompadour. The man had on a pea-green shirt with a brown vest, brown slacks and a grey tie. On his hands, the man wore a pair of black leather gloves.

"You must all be the survivors from Neo Domino," the man spoke as he approached. "I am Divine, leader of the Acadia Movement. I welcome you all to my sanctuary."

"Nice to meet ya," Crow responded. "I kind of help run this little outfit. So we were wondering if we could at least stay here for a few days."

"Of course. I would not have sent Aki to come and bring you here if I did not wish you to stay," Divine pointed out. "Aki, perhaps you should go change and prepare for dinner."

"As you wish," Aki replied with a bow before leaving.

"I took the liberty of preparing a large banquet for some of you in the main hall," Divine informed the group. "I'd be pleased if you and your friends would dine with me and my inner circle, Mr. Hogan. Do not worry. The rest of your little gang will be taken care of."

"That sounds good to me!" Yugo interrupted. "I'm totally starved."

"Same here," Rua agreed.

"What the hell. It's been a long trip," Crow responded.

With that, Divine led the others into the castle while the rest of the survivors from Neo Domino started setting up camp. The leader of the Arcadia Movement gave Crow and the others a small tour before leading them to a large dining hall that had a long table with multiple chairs. Sitting towards the end of the table was a young woman who appeared to be about seventeen. She had long blue-green hair and gold eyes behind a pair of half moon glasses with burgundy frames. Her outfit appeared to be some kind of military style uniform with a black blazer over a tan shirt with a red tie, along with a short green skirt and black knee-high boots.

"Ah! Everyone, I'd like you to meet one of the members of my inner circle, Asuka Quinn," Divine introduced. "Asuka, these are our guests from Neo Domino."

Asuka rose from her chair and bowed to the others. "It is a pleasure to meet you all."

"Please go ahead and have a seat," Divine told the group. "The others should be here very shortly."

With that, Crow and the others took a seat around the table, with Yugo and Rin sitting next to each other. Rua, Ruka and Hitomi took the three seats opposite Yugo, while Ushio and Sid took the two seats opposite Rin. Shinji and Crow took the two chairs at the opposite side of the table from the twins. Saiga and Izzy took the seats next to Shinji. Divine meanwhile took a seat at the head of the table.

Not long after everyone had sat down, another person entered the room. The person in question was a young woman who appeared to be about sixteen, with shoulder-length pink hair and bright green eyes. She had on a white blazer over a pink shirt, along with a short green skirt with pink knee-high socks and black shoes. Around her neck was a simple black choker.

"Sorry I'm late, Divine," the woman spoke as she walked towards the table. "I was trying to decide what to wear for this little dinner with our guests and…" she stopped when she noticed Shinji. "Oh. Well hello there, handsome. Who might you be?"

"Uh… Shinji Weber," the bee duelist answered as his face turned slightly red.

"Nice to meet you, Shinji," the pinkette replied as she took the seat next to him. "I'm Matsuri Winthrop. So tell me Shinji, what part of Neo Domino are you from?"

"I grew up in the Commons," Shinji answered.

"Seriously? With your looks?" a surprised Matsuri replied. "Talk about your diamond in the rough."

"Like you, Matsuri here also came from Neo Domino originally," Divine interjected. "Though she lived in the Tops. However, because of her gifts society deemed her an outcast. With nowhere else to go, she came to my doorstep."

At that moment, another person entered the room. The person who walked in was a young man of about fourteen who stood at a minimal height of four feet. He had light-blue hair and iron-grey eyes. His outfit consisted of a blue sweater-vest with a white long sleeved shirt and red bowtie, along with a pair of tan slacks and black shoes.

"My apologies, Divine," the young man spoke as he took a seat close to the end of the table. "I was watching an… informative video and lost track of time."

"That 'informative' video that Mortimer was watching was probably porn," Matsuri whispered to Shinji. "That little twerp is a total perv."

"Don't worry about it, Mortimer," Divine told him. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet another member of my inner circle, Mortimer Wells. He's something of a psychic prodigy, and a very big help to my cause."

Not long after Mortimer had sat down, Aki returned wearing a red, black, and white almost Victorian style dress had replaced her original grey and black prison uniform. She also had on elbow-high black fingerless gloves and black stockings with red shoes. Also part of Aki's outfit was a gold almost cross-shaped medallion hanging from her neck. The redhead was silent as she took the remaining seat towards the end of the table near Divine and across from Asuka.

"Well, now that we're all here, I think the time has come to serve dinner," Divine decided.

With that, Divine snapped his fingers and several young women came in carrying trays of food. Once all the food had been set, Yugo instantly began to dig in to the bountiful spread. The young turbo duelist ate with such speed and gusto that Rua backed away from him a bit out of fear that he might lose an arm if he got to close. Many of the others at the table merely looked on with a mixture of awe and disgust that anyone could eat like that. After only a few more moments of watching Yugo practically trying to devour the whole table, an annoyed Rin kicked him in the shin.

"Hey!" Yugo protested. "What the heck did you do that for Rin?"

"Yugo, I know we've hardly ever had food like this before, but try and show some manners!" Rin ordered. "You're embarrassing us in front of our hosts!"

"Well excuse me for trying to enjoy myself!" Yugo argued. "I'd think you'd be happy that I had an appetite after the way you kept worrying about my health before!"

"I am happy that you seem to be okay, but you could at least chew with your mouth closed!" Rin told him.

Divine suddenly began to chuckle. "My… you two are quite an amusing couple. It pleases me to see that love can still exist even in these dark times."

A heavy blush came to both Yugo and Rin's faces upon hearing Divine's comment.

"Uh… uh… did you really just call me and Rin a couple?" a very flustered Yugo asked.

"Hold on! You've totally got the wrong idea here!" an equally flustered Rin declared. "Yugo and I aren't in that kind of relationship!"

"Really? How odd," Divine remarked. "From the way you two were just carrying on, I'd have thought you were married for years."

"That's what I said once," Rua whispered to Ruka.

"Well, it doesn't really matter," Divine spoke. "Your name was Yugo, right? Feel free to indulge as much as you want. The same goes for the rest of you. After all, you are guests here."

"Thanks," Crow responded. "So Divine, what exactly is this movement of yours all about?"

"Well, to put it simply, the Arcadia Movement is an organization that I began as a sanctuary for those with psychic abilities," Divine explained. "Here, people gifted with such powers have a home where they can develop these abilities without fear of persecution."

"The fact is we're pretty much freaks where the general public is concerned," Matsuri interjected. "My parents kicked me out of the house not long after I developed my powers. It's the same story with Aki there. Like me, she lived a life of luxury in the Tops as the daughter of a senator."

"Wait, hold on a sec," Ushio spoke. "Are you saying that Ms. Aki there is Senator Izayoi's daughter? I always heard that she was some rebellious teenager who ran away from home."

"Sadly no," Divine told him. "Aki's parents merely sent her away to a duel academy in Neo Domino, but even there she could not find acceptance. In the end, she took to the streets and lashed out at everyone who came near her. By the time I had found her, she had become known as the duelist known as the Black Rose Witch."

Sid went totally pale upon hearing the other name Aki had gone by. "Wait… you mean _the_ Black Rose Witch? The duelist they say was more fearsome than Sergey Volkov, the Duelist Crusher?"

"Holy crap! I always thought that the Black Rose Witch was an urban legend," an equally unsettled Izzy remarked.

"Yes, well… that's all in the past for Aki," Divine told them. "Now she's one of the most important members of my organization."

"And just what is the goal of this organization of yours?" Crow asked.

"Why to make this world a better place to live," Divine answered. "One where psychic like myself, Aki and all of the others can live without being persecuted for their gifts."

"That's all well and good, but there's one big problem that we all have right now," Saiga interjected. "A problem that affects everyone whether they have these psychic powers of yours or not."

"I assume that you're referring to Iliaster," Divine deduced. "Yes, I've known about them for quite some time. Right now the group is restricted to Neo Domino, but soon they'll become a threat to the entire world."

"Aki seemed to say something about your group being willing to help us take Iliaster down," Crow recalled. "Is that really true?"

"Well, the fact is that Iliaster will become a big problem for my organization as well," Divine admitted. "I am open to the possibility of working with your group to take them down."

"No offence, but some of us aren't quite sure we trust you guys," Crow told him.

"It's totally understandable," Divine assured him. "Trust takes time. I'm sure it will take a while for you and your friends to consider my offer. In the meantime, you and the rest of your group are welcome to stay here at my sanctuary for as long as you wish."

* * *

After dinner, Divine had shown Yugo and his friends to a large conference room in the castle while his staff had started to prepare rooms for them in the castle. The gang had decided to use their time in that room to talk a little bit about Divine's offer.

"Well guys? What do you all think?" Crow asked the others.

"I'm not sure if I trust that guy, Divine," Sid told the others. "There's something about him that seems shady."

"I'm with Sid on this one," Ushio agreed. "There's something about this whole outfit that just doesn't sit right."

"You guys could be right. On the other hand, we can't be too picky about who our allies are at this point," Saiga pointed out. "If Divine's offer really is genuine, I think we should take it."

"At the very least, we should stay here for a while," Izzy suggested. "If Iliaster has assimilated Briggs and Duffy, then they probably know about our plan to hide out in Crash Town. We should lay low here for a while until the collective decides that we've abandoned our plans to go there."

"No argument here," Crow agreed. "Still, I'm not sure if we can really trust these psychics."

"Well, you have to admit that they are pretty friendly," Shinji remarked with a slight blush as he thought of Matsuri's earlier advances. "Besides, you can't deny that they do seem to be powerful. Remember how Aki took down those droids on the bridge."

"Well Yugo? What do you think about all this?" Crow asked.

"Uh… you're honestly asking me?" Yugo responded.

"Sure. You've become a big part of this team," Crow told him.

"Well… since you asked, I'm not sure we can trust these Arcadia Movement guys either," Yugo admitted. "I mean we don't really know that much about them."

"I'm with Yugo," Rin agreed. "Sure they may have saved us from Iliaster, but we don't really know what the reason for it is."

"Alright, then here's what we'll do," Crow began. "We'll stay here at the castle for a while but hold off on making any kind of alliance with the Arcadia Movement until we figure out just who it is we're really dealing with."

* * *

Night had fallen, and Divine was in his office at the window overlooking the courtyard. He was looking down at the vehicles from the convoy with a mixture of amusement and disgust down at the refugees who were setting up camp. Aki, Asuka, Matsuri and Mortimer were also all in the office.

"We certainly ended up with more guests than I expected that we would," Divine remarked. "I'm actually rather impressed that there were so many people from Neo Domino who managed to escape getting assimilated by Iliaster."

"They're a tough group," Aki remarked. "I suppose they'd have to be in order to survive."

"What shall we do with them, Master?" Asuka asked.

"Mortimer, were you able to dig up anything on our new guests?" Divine asked.

"Only on the little group that had dinner with us," Mortimer answered. "Most of them seem to be pretty formidable duelists. The two Neo Domino security officers are at least above average."

"Do we really think any of them have powers?" Asuka asked.

"That boy, Yugo and his sort-of girlfriend, Rin… I think it's very likely that they might be like us," Aki admitted.

"So are we going to start testing these guys out or what?" Matsuri asked. "I'd love to start toying with that guy, Shinji."

"All in good time, Matsuri," Divine told her. "For now, we shall simply wait a while and observe our visitors. We'll wait until they drop their guard and then test them to see if they truly are worthy of joining our ranks."

"It would be beneficial to have more time to observe them before we tested them out," Mortimer admitted.

"Divine, it didn't seem like these survivors were very eager to join forces with us," Aki noted.

"That doesn't really matter," Divine told her. "In the end, they too will have no choice but to bow before us. That old fool running Iliaster thinks that he will be the one who rules the world, but it's really us who will be its rulers."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** One of the members of Divine's inner circle, Mortimer is actually an OC that I recycled from an earlier ZEXAL fanfic I did, _Barians vs. Psychis_. I was kind of running out of ideas for characters to use for the Arcadia Movement in this version of the story and decided that this would be a good story to reuse him in.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	9. Night of the Psychics

**Important Author's Note:** It came to my attention after putting up the last chapter that I made something of a small error with the character names. I realized a bit too late that one of the OCs in this story, Asuka Quinn shares the same first name as a major character from GX. So far at least one reviewer made the mistake of misidentifying the Asuka in this story as that GX character, Alexis Rhodes. This little error didn't register to me at the time because I usually use the dub names of the GX characters. After some discussion with my friend, Firebolt the Blazing Saint, I have decided to keep this OC's name the way that it is, as I felt it was too late to go back and change it. Just please keep in mind that the Asuka character we'll be seeing in this story is not the famous one.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 9: Night of the Psychics

Three weeks had gone by since Yugo and the others had arrived at the Arcadia Movement's castle. During that time, Divine and his people had gone out of their way to make the survivors of Neo Domino feel right at home. The castle had all the amenities of a five-star resort, which had made the people originally from the Tops feel as though they had gone back to the days before Iliaster's takeover and those from the Commons feel like they had died and gone to heaven. The castle was after all a thousand times more luxurious than the underground. For many of the survivors, the conquest of Neo Domino was starting to feel like it had happened many years ago and a million miles away. Meanwhile, very little had been discussed between Crow and Divine about an alliance to take down Iliaster. There was still something about the Acradia Movement's leader that Crow just didn't trust.

As for Yugo, the doctors that had been with the survivors from the very beginning had given him, Rin and Ruka a physical exam to try and determine just what had happened to them during the time of Aki's rescue. While the doctors had found nothing wrong with Rin and Ruka, the strange dragon-like mark that had lit up on Yugo's back had somehow been burned onto his skin. Of course the mark was found to be more like a birthmark than an actual burn. The doctors had absolutely no idea how the mark had formed on Yugo's back, but they had determined that he as in no medical danger from it. At the same time though, nobody could figure out why the mark on Yugo's back seemed to light up during the duel.

That afternoon, Rin was out taking a walk through the castle and spotted Yugo out on one of the tower balconies. Yugo was silently looking out across the vast wasteland beyond the courtyard. With nothing else to do, Rin decided to go join him.

"Hey," Rin spoke as she walked up, getting Yugo's attention. "What're you doing?"

"Oh… just thinking about stuff," Yugo answered. "You know, I feel like this castle is a bit like what our place in the Tops would've been like. The one we could've gotten if one of us had won the Friendship Cup."

"That was our dream once, wasn't it?" Rin recalled. "Of course… if we did enter, only one of us would've had a shot at becoming champion. The other person would've ended up in the underground sorting trash for the rest of their life."

"Hey. Sometimes you gotta take a big gamble in order to succeed in life," Yugo pointed out. "Besides, if either of us had become the new champion of the city, we could've changed that messed up system. I'm sure that _he_ could've… if Jack hadn't somehow made him disappear right before the final match."

"…Yugo, after everything that's happened, don't you think it might be time to let all that go?" Rin suggested.

"I can never let it go," Yugo told her. "I won't let it go until I can find Jack and get back at him for what happened. Besides, it's also because of Jack that I wound up getting captured by security and thrown in that stasis pod or whatever it was. No matter how long it takes, I'm gonna find Jack and pay him back for everything he's done."

With that, Yugo suddenly stormed off into the castle. Rin let out a heavy sigh as he left. She realized how foolish it was to bring up such a touchy subject.

"Trouble in paradise, Ms. Rin?" a familiar voice suddenly asked. "I hope whatever it is I just saw was nothing too serious."

"Oh! Mr. Divine," Rin responded. "Um, no. Everything is fine with Yugo and me. We were just sort of talking about the past."

"That much I had gathered," Divine responded as he approached. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help but overhear some of what the two of you were talking about. So, you and Yugo had dreams of entering Neo Domino's annual Friendship Cup?"

"Yeah. It was a dream that we shared with a couple of other people we grew up with," Rin revealed. "Yugo looked up to them a whole lot."

"And one of those people was Jack Atlas?" Divine deduced, causing Rin to give him a look of surprise. The brown-haired psychic merely chuckled. "If you're wondering how I knew that, I didn't read your mind to find it out. I heard Yugo say the name, Jack and there's only one Friendship Cup champion with that name."

"Oh… right," Rin responded. "To be honest, I can totally understand why Yugo is so mad at Jack, especially after the way Jack sold him out to security like that. The fact is that Jack let a lot of us who lived in the Commons down. We thought that him winning would've made life in the city better for us, but instead he sold out."

"Did Jack really let you down, or did you poor people of the Commons hold him to unrealistic expectations?" Divine asked. "The fact is that the corrupt system that existed in Neo Domino, not to mention the problems of this entire country, were simply way too much for one man to solve. Do you know how Japan ended up the way it is now? How Neo Domino was transformed into the society that it was?"

"A little bit," Rin answered.

Divine looked up at the sky and put his hands on the balcony railing. "Back in the year 2012, a cluster of small asteroids came down and struck Japan and the ocean around it. The country was almost totally decimated. Over half of the population had perished in the catastrophe, and much of the land had been destroyed and made barren, like the vast wasteland around this castle. What was worse was that other countries were afraid to come to Japan's aid out of fear that the asteroids produced a strange radiation that was harmful to humans, for it was later found out that they were made of some unidentified element with peculiar qualities.

"Then, about six months after the tragedy, the five wealthiest people in the country came together in the ruins of the old Domino City and used their money and power to rebuild it into the nation's new capital. They gathered together the finest minds from all around the country and built a new state of the art metropolis on the back of the old ruins, and thus the two halves of Neo Domino City were born. The metropolis I just spoke of became known as the Tops, while the ruins of the old Domino City became the Commons."

"All of that I pretty much knew," Rin admitted. "I also knew that those five people you just talked about became the five members of the city's administrative council."

"But perhaps you don't realize the con that those five so-called heroes pulled on every single citizen of your fair city," Divine told her. "To keep themselves in power, they created the principal of the competitive society where only the richest citizens can rule. Then to distract the citizens from how flawed such a society is, they created things like the Friendship Cup to entertain them and produce a champion duelist that the could use as a sort of figurehead to help keep the people in line. The fact is the moment your old friend, Jack Atlas became the city champion, he became consumed by the wealth that came with that title and became their puppet. Perhaps it was even the promise of all that wealth that caused him to make the person he was supposed to fight in the final match disappear."

"Maybe… I don't know," Rin admitted. "The truth is I kind of looked up to Jack too, but after all that happened I just don't know if he was really the person Yugo and I thought he was."

"Well… all of that is pretty much academic at this point though, isn't it?" Divine pointed out. "The truth is, what Iliaster has done to Neo Domino is a rather elegant solution. Of course we can't let a society like that carry on either."

"So you really are serious about helping us take down Iliaster?" Rin asked.

Divine smirked and looked her in the eye. "There's something else about the asteroids that I forgot to tell you. Remember how I said that they were made of a strange element with peculiar qualities? Well those qualities have caused certain people to awaken with certain abilities, powers that had always been in them but had been dormant."

"You're talking about the psychic powers that you and Ms. Aki have, aren't you?" Rin realized.

"You're a sharp one alright," Divine observed. "But then I would expect nothing less from the daughter of Leo Akaba. The man was one of the greatest geniuses of our century. Anyway, I believe that at least three members of your little group might have the type of powers I'm talking about. If that's true, you belong with us."

"Okay… let's say you're right," Rin spoke. "What if these people you're talking about have these powers? What then? What does the Arcadia Movement really have planned?"

"I was being totally honest before a few weeks ago. We really do want Iliaster to be removed," Divine assured her.

"But what happens after that?" Rin asked as she backed away a bit. "What do you and your movement intend to do with the city once Iliaster is taken out?"

"…That's something to discuss for another time," Divine answered. "Well, I should be going. I have other business to attend to. It was very nice talking to you, Rin. If I'm right about you, the two of us may be working together quite a bit in the future."

With that, Divine went back into the castle. Rin couldn't help but feel uncomfortable after the little conversation that she had just had with the Arcadia Movement's leader. There was something about the way Divine had looked at her towards the end that had made her feel very unsettled. Rin tried to put the whole incident out of her mind and headed back into the castle. As Rin left the balcony, she was unaware that Aki had been watching her the whole time from the neighboring tower.

* * *

Dusk was falling upon the Arcadia Castle as Divine headed down into the castle's vast basement. After walking down a long corridor past a pair of steel doors with small barred windows, the brown-haired psychic entered a large dim laboratory with a polished floor that was filled with various pieces of electronic equipment. Mortimer was sitting at a large computer in the room playing some sort of videogame.

"I hope I'm not intruding," Divine spoke, causing Mortimer to pause his game.

"Not at all, sir," Mortimer assured him as he turned his chair around. "I was just trying to unwind with a little game."

"At least I didn't walk in on you during your other favorite recreational activity," Divine responded with a small look of disgust. "It really is amazing what kind of filthy videos you can find on the net."

Divine's comment caused Mortimer to blush. "So… what is it that you came down here for?"

"I think we've observed our newest group of houseguests long enough," Divine explained. "The time has come to test the ones who I think have the most potential of being one of us. I've already told Aki, Asuka and Matsuri to be ready. The rest depends on you."

"Not to worry sir, I have been prepared for this little event for weeks," Mortimer told him as he turned back to his computer and typed a few keys.

Moments later, a spotlight came down in a spot on Divine's left towards the wall. A hidden trap door opened up, and rising out of it was a pedestal with a strange chrome helmet sitting on it.

"As you can see, I have finished the device that should amplify my mental abilities," Mortimer continued. "I've set it so that it will affect all of our visiting refugees except for the ones you want tested. Also, I have taken the liberty of activating the usual traps inside the castle to herd the test subjects to the proper locations. We are ready to begin whenever you are."

"Excellent!" Divine replied. "We'll begin as soon as everyone has gone to bed."

* * *

It was the dead of night as Yugo awoke in his room to some kind of strange noise that he heard coming from outside through his window. He got out of bed and went over to the window to try and figure out where it was coming from. The noise sounded like some kind of chanting, and it seemed to be coming from the courtyard out in front of the castle. Yugo quickly got dressed and decided to go out and investigate. As a precaution, the young turbo duelist decided to take his duel disk with. The moment Yugo went out the door he bumped into Rin, causing her to let out a startled scream.

"Dammit Yugo! Don't scare me like that!" Rin told him in a loud whisper.

"Rin! What the heck are you doing up?" Yugo whispered back.

"I wanted to see what that noise was," Rin explained. "You?"

"Same," Yugo answered.

"What's going on out here?" a familiar voice spoke. Yugo and Rin saw Ruka approaching with Hitomi and a still half asleep Rua.

"It's nothing you kids need to worry about, Rin told them. "Yugo and I were going to go and check something out. You just go back to bed."

"If it's about that strange noise coming from outside, we'd like to know what it is too," Hitomi told them.

"Looks like we all had the same idea," another familiar voice spoke. The others looked and saw Crow walking up with Shinji. "Well, since we're all up, we all might as well go out and take a look."

With that, Yugo and the others headed out of the castle. A few moments later, the arrived in the courtyard to find that a large bonfire had been started. Every one of the Neo Domino refugees was standing around the fire, acting as if they were in some kind of trance.

"All hale Arcadia! All hale Arcadia!" the entrance refugees chanted.

"What the hell's going on here?" Shinji asked.

Crow spotted Saiga standing nearby and decided to ask him about the strange gathering. He tapped Saiga on the shoulder, causing him to turn around.

Saiga looked at Crow with a totally blank expression. "Hello there, Crow. We were all wondering when you and the others would join us."

"Uh, hey buddy," Crow responded. "So, um… what's going on here?"

"Oh, nothing really. Just hanging out," Saiga answered. "Say can you do me a big favor?"

"Sure thing. What is it?" Crow asked.

"Nothing big. We just need you all to submit to the Arcadia Movement," Saiga answered. "Otherwise, we might be forced to kill you."

Suddenly all the members of the assembled crowd began to advance on them. Realizing the danger, Crow kicked Saiga in the stomach, causing the scruffy tech expert to fall to his knees.

"Run!" Crow ordered as he dashed back towards the castle door.

Yugo and the others ran after Crow without a second thought. The seemingly hypnotized crowd followed after them, but at a very slow pace. Once the seven made it back into the castle, they began blindly running through the corridors.

"What the heck's going on?" a freaked out Rua asked. "Why is everyone acting like zombies?"

"Did Iliaster somehow take over the castle?" Hitomi asked.

"You guys all heard it straight from Saiga's lips. This is the work of the Arcadia Movement!" Crow told them. "Dammit! I knew there was a reason why I didn't trust that bastard Divine! Anyone with that bad a taste in suits is always shady!"

"But how is the Arcadia Movement controlling everyone like this?" Rin asked.

"We can figure that out later!" Crow told her. "Right now let's just split up and try to make it harder for these guys to catch us."

"Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't splitting up the kind of thing you're not supposed to do in a horror movie?" Ruka asked.

"No time to argue! Let's just do it!" Crow ordered.

With that, Crow and Shinji veered off into a corridor on the left. Rua followed the bird duelist's lead and took his sister and Hitomi down a corridor to the right. Yugo and Rin meanwhile continued on ahead. The pair had only gone a few feet when the large floor tile beneath Rin's feet opened up. Rin instantly dropped down the hole calling Yugo's name. By the time Yugo turned around, Rin was gone and the trapdoor had closed shut.

Yugo instantly got down on his knees and began pounding on the tile with his fist. "Dammit! Open up! Hey!"

"Hey Yugo," a familiar voice spoke. He looked and saw that it was Ushio. "What do you think you're you doing kid?"

"Ushio!" Yugo spoke as he got back to his feet. "Rin fell down some kind of trapdoor! We have to open it up so we can get to her!"

"You're not doing anything," Ushio told him as he activated his duel disk. "Except submit to the Arcadia Movement!"

"You gotta be kidding me!" Yugo exclaimed.

Seeing he had no other choice, Yugo activated his own duel disk in response.

"I'm going first," Ushio declared. "I set one card on the field. Then I summon Gate Blocker in Defense Mode!"

Appearing on Ushio's side of the battlefield was a large black slab of polished stone with an orange section going down the center. Towards the top of the stone slab was a marking resembling a large red eye.

"That ends my turn," Ushio announced.

"Dammit! I don't have time for this!" Yugo declared as he drew his first card. "Okay. Since I have no other monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

Yugo's train of red mechanical tops materialized on Yugo's side of the field.

"When Terrortop is summoned to the field, I can add another Speedroid monster to my hand!" Yugo announced as he took another card from his deck. "Next I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

The large yellow metal die appeared on the battlefield next to Terrortop.

"I use the effect of Red-Eyed Dice to change Terrortop's level from three to four!" Yugo announced. "Now I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level four Terrortop for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single green ring of light. The rings encircled Terrortop and transformed the cluster of tops into four white stars.

"Overflowing with the throb of life, soul of the sword's dance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level five! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that soon faded to reveal Yugo's giant red sword-like robot.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Ushio asked. "My Gate Blocker has 2000 DEF, the same amount of ATK points that your monster has."

"Whenever Chanbara battles another monster, he gains 200 ATK!" Yugo announced. "Chanbara, smash that hunk of rock to pieces! High Speed Slasher!"

Chanbara zoomed across the battlefield and struck Ushio's stone slab with his large blade. The stone instantly shattered to pieces upon being hit.

"I activate my Trap, Broken Blocker!" Ushio announced. "When a monster of mine with high DEF is destroyed in battle, I can summon two more copies of that monster from my deck! I summon two more Gate Blockers in Defense Mode!"

On cue, two more stone slabs identical to the one Chanbara had just destroyed materialized on Ushio's side of the field.

"Big deal! Chanbara can make two attacks in a single turn!" Yugo told him. "Chanbara, attack the Gate Blocker on the right! High Speed Slasher!"

Chanbara turned back around and slammed his blade into the stone slab that Yugo had indicated, causing it to shatter into rubble.

"Not bad, kid. But I've still got one Gate Blocker left," Ushio pointed out.

Yugo scowled as he looked at his hand. Every second he wasted dueling Ushio was another second that Rin was in danger.

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed. "I set one card face-down and end my turn!"

Ushio drew his next card. "You can struggle all you want kid, but it'll do you no good. Before this duel is over, you will submit to the Arcadia Movement!"

* * *

Rua continued running down the corridor with Ruka and Hitomi until they finally reached a dead end. There was a door on the left side of the hallway, but it looked to be nothing more than a closet. The three of them took that opportunity to catch their breath and figure out their next move.

"This totally got us nowhere," Ruka remarked. "I still think we should've stayed with Crow and the others."

"But Crow told us to split up," Rua reminded her.

"It was something of a sound plan, as it does make it a little harder for the Arcadia Movement to capture us," Hitomi pointed out.

"Maybe, but what're we supposed to do now?" Ruka asked.

"Well… we could hide in that closet for a while," Rua suggested.

"That would be better than just staying out here in the open," Hitomi agreed.

"Then what're we waiting for?" Ruka responded.

With that, Hitomi opened the closet door and went inside with Ruka. Rua was only a step behind, but before he could follow the girls in, the door slammed shut on his face. Suddenly there was some kind of rumbling noise, and a bright green light poured out from the crack at the bottom of the door only to fade away a few seconds later. When Rua opened the door, the girls had totally vanished.

"Ruka… Hitomi…" a horrified Rua spoke. "Oh crap! I can't believe I lost them!"

Ruka awoke to feel a wave of dizziness wash over her. The dizziness quickly passed though, and the green-haired girl found that she was in a large dim room with a polished floor and several pieces of electronic equipment scattered around. As she sat up, she saw Hitomi on the ground only a few feet away from her. The pinkette had also started to regain consciousness.

"Hitomi, are you okay?" Ruka asked.

"I think so," Hitomi answered as she sat up and held her head. "What happened? How did we get here?"

"Welcome, ladies. I'm humbled to have you in my lab," a familiar high-pitched voice spoke.

Ruka and Hitomi looked to see Mortimer standing a few feet away. The nerdy psychic had on the same chrome helmet he had shown Divine earlier.

"You're part of Divine's inner circle," Ruka recalled as she and Hitomi got to their feet.

"How did we even get here?" Hitomi asked. "The last thing I remember was going into that closet."

"The closet you're talking about hid a device that's been a little pet project of mine," Mortimer revealed. "It creates a small wormhole that can transport people over short distances. I'm still working out all the bugs of course. If either of you is going to ask how long you were unconscious, only a few seconds have passed since you quite literally dropped in."

"What's with that helmet you've got on?" Ruka asked.

"You mean my latest fashion statement?" Mortimer responded. "It's a device that amplifies my psychic abilities. You see many of us here at the Arcadia Movement have our own unique powers. Mine talent happens to be mind control. My powers do have certain limits of course, but this amplifier I've developed helps me overcome them."

"So you're the reason why Mr. Saiga and the others attacked us!" Hitomi realized.

"Why are you doing all this?" Ruka asked.

"Why? Because Divine wanted to test a few of you to see if you are one of us," Mortimer explained. "Fellow psychics who are worthy of joining our glorious organization. Divine has especially high hopes for you, Ms. Ruka. He knows all about the little incident that happened when Aki rescued you from Iliaster."

"Let everyone go right now!" Hitomi ordered.

"I may be persuaded to release everyone from my control… if you can beat me!" Mortimer told them as he activated the duel disk on his arm.

"And if we don't?" Ruka asked.

"Well… that's up to Divine," Mortimer answered. "But my guess is that your fate won't be all that pretty. Either way though, you have no choice but to face me."

"Well… if that's how it has to be… then let's go," Ruka agreed.

With that, Ruka and Hitomi both activated their duel disks, initiating a Battle Royale.

"Since we're in my lab, I'll be the one to go first," Mortimer declared. "First I set three cards on the field. Then I summon Alien Shocktrooper in Defense Mode!"

Materializing on Mortimer's part of the battlefield was a green centaur-like lizard with small orange-red eyes. The top half of its head was black and had a row of long spikes growing from the back. Its chest and shoulders were covered in scaly black armor, with two round blue gems decorating the chest and a smaller round gem decorating each shoulder. The same type of black scaly armor covered the beast's waist, and in its left hand the creature carried a long saber.

"That ends my turn," Mortimer announced.

Ruka drew her first card. "I summon Aromage Jasmine in Defense Mode!"

Appearing on Ruka's part of the field was a girl with long bluish-white hair and blue eyes. She had on a long bluish-white coat with baggy sleeves over a green shirt, along with long dark-blue pants and dark-brown leather shoes. A purse with a long leather strap was slung over her left shoulder, and in her left hand the girl carried a thin staff with a candle at the top surrounded by a wreath of flowers.

"I activate the Spell card, Dian Keto the Cure Master!" Ruka announced. "With this card, my life points go up by 1000!"

The card caused Ruka's body to briefly give off a golden aura. Before the aura faded, her life points had risen from 4000 to 5000.

"Because my life points just went up, Jasmine's effect lets me draw another card," Ruka announced. "Now, because my life points are higher than my opponent's, Jasmine allows me to normal summon a second Plant-Type monster each turn. I summon Aromage Rosemary in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on the field next to Jasmine was a young woman with blue eyes and long blue hair that was tied in a ponytail and decorated on each side with large leaf-like ornaments. She had on a blue dress with a skirt that was longer at the back, along with white elbow-high gloves and a pair of light-blue thigh-high boots. In her right hand, the young woman carried a thin staff with a candle and a hook of flowers at the top. Floating around her was a spell book and several scented candles.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Foolish Burial and send Aromage Bergamont from my deck to the Graveyard!" Ruka announced. "I set one card on the field and end my turn."

Hitomi drew her first card. "I summon Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 Ninishi in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on Hitomi's part of the field was a humanoid robot that appeared to me made out of wood. The robot was wearing a green kimono with a pink flower pattern and a red obi. On its head was a black wig that was done in the hairstyle of a woman from feudal Japan. The robot's face consisted of a mouth and three green lenses for eyes.

"When Ninishi is on face-up on the field, I can normal summon one additional Karakuri monster each turn!" Hitomi announced. "I summon Karakuri Ninja mdl 919 Kuick in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Ninishi was another wooden robot styled to look like a female ninja. It had on a sleeveless purple dress with a short skirt, and attached to its head was a long straight black ponytail. A large dagger was attached to each of the robot's hands, and its eyes were two red lenses that were arranged horizontally on what was considered to be its face.

"I tune the level three Ninishi into the level four Kuick for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Hitomi announced.

Ninishi twirled around a few times before changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Kuick and transformed the robot ninja into four white stars.

"Ancient lord of the mechanized world! Be reborn in the modern era and impose your authority!" Hitomi chanted. "Synchro Summon! Activate! Level seven! Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 Burei!"

The stars flashed into a pillar of white light that faded away moments later to reveal a large and ancient-looking robot wearing ornate black and gold samurai armor. Attached to its helmet was a pair of long black horns and a golden gear on the front with the kanji for the number zero. Hanging from the robot's back was a long tattered red cape, and in its right hand was an ornate red and gold fan-like weapon with a gold gear pattern on the back. Its face was a red mask with four green lenses for eyes and a bushy white mustache.

"When Burei is successfully Synchro Summon, I can special summon another Karakuri monster from my deck!" Hitomi announced. "I summon Karakuri Ninja mdl 7749 Nanashick!"

Appearing next to Burei was another humanoid robot made out of wood, with a sword blade attached to its right arm and a grey gear-shaped blade in its left hand. Its face had three glowing red lenses for eyes and was wrapped in a red cloth that served as a mask. Hanging from its back was a long tattered red cape.

"I activate Burai's effect!" Hitomi announced. "Once per turn, Burei lets me change the battle position of one monster on the field. I switch your Alien Shocktrooper from Defense Mode to Attack Mode!"

Burei waved his fan and struck the reptilian centaur with a powerful gust of wind. Upon being hit, the alien soldier was momentarily knocked off his four feet.

"Because Nanashick is in Attack Mode, I have to attack with him when I can," Hitomi announced. "So I use Nanashick to attack Alien Shocktrooper!"

"And at that moment, I activate my face-down card!" Mortimer announced. "A Cell Scatter Burst! This card destroys Alien Shocktrooper and lets me distribute a number of A-Counters equal to his level to my opponent's monsters! I place two A-Counters each on Nanashick and Burei!"

Just as Nanashick charged across the field and was about to move in for the kill, Alien Shocktrooper suddenly swelled up and exploded into chunks of flesh. Two pairs of large purple blobs resembling single celled organisms splattered onto Hitomi's two robots.

"At this moment, I activate my second face-down card, A Cell Recombination Device!" Mortimer announced. "With this card, I send an Alien monster from my deck to the Graveyard to place A-Counters on one of my opponent's monsters equal to the Alien's level. I send Alien Intellect to the Graveyard to place three more A-Counters on Burei!"

Three balls of purple light shot from the large representation of Mortimer's Spell card and struck Burei in the chest, becoming more of the purple blobs that were already stuck to the robot samurai's shoulders.

"I don't know what kind of strategy you're trying to pull off, but you've left yourself wide open!" Hitomi told him. "Nanashick, attack him directly!"

"I activate my final face-down card, Brainwashing Beam!" Mortimer announced. "This Trap lets me take control of an opponent's monster with A-Counters on it! And of course the monster I choose is Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 Burei!"

A beam of yellow light fired from Mortimer's Trap card and struck Burei. The robot's four eyes began to glow with a strange yellow light, and suddenly he moved over to Mortimer's part of the battlefield.

"Of course the weakness that most of your Karakuri monsters have is that they must attack when able," Mortimer continued. "Which means Nanashick has no choice but to attack Burai!"

"Urg! I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Karakuri Gold Dust!" Hitomi quickly announced. "When two Karakuri monsters are on the field, I can switch one of them to Defense Mode and have the other gain that monster's ATK until the end of the turn! I switch Nanashick to Defense Mode to boost Burei's ATK by 2200!"

Nanashick instantly went into a kneeling position as soon as Hitomi used her card. A second later, Burei's ATK points went up from 2600 to 4800.

"Well played," Mortimer praised. "But you're only prolonging your inevitable defeat. You see this duel is as easy for me to control as the human mind. Neither of you little girls has a chance against me."

"We'll see about that!" Hitomi declared. "I set one card on the field and end my turn! Which means Burei's ATK goes back down to 2600!"

Mortimer smirked as he drew his next card. "Prepare yourselves, for I'm about to show you that no duel is beyond my control!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** One big mistake that the writers of the ARC-V anime made was that they never got into the history of the three Extra Deck dimensions (except for the Xyz Dimension, that is). We never really got to find out how the Fusion and Synchro Dimensions became the dystopian worlds that they were. So I decided to have Divine do a quick and dirty version of how the Neo Domino in this story became the way that it was. I hope that everyone reading found it interesting.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	10. Alien Domination

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 10: Alien Domination

While Ruka and Hitomi's duel with Mortimer was only just getting started, Yugo's duel against Ushio was still going on. Ushio had started his next move.

"I summon Torapart in Attack Mode!" Ushio announced.

Materializing next to Gate Blocker was a pair of brass cymbals with a hand puppet attached to each one. The puppets were identical to one another, each resembling the upper half of a green humanoid creature with pointed ears. Both puppets had on a black conical hat with an orange flower, along with a black cape, a purple shirt and a pair of blue-green gloves.

"I tune the level two Torapart into the level four Gate Blocker for a level six Synchro Summon!" Ushio announced.

The puppets pulled apart, and each turned into a ring of green light that surrounded Gate Blocker and turned the stone slab into four white stars.

"Behold! This is the power of authority!" Ushio chanted. "Synchro Summon! A surprise encounter, Goyo Guardian!"

The stars flashed and changed into a pillar of white light that shot into the air, fading moments later to reveal the kabuki warrior commonly used by the members of Neo Domino Security.

"Goyo Guardian, attack Speedroid Chanbara!" Ushio commanded. "Arrest Whip!"

"I activate my Trap, Trap Hole of Spikes!" Yugo announced, but when he tried to activate the card with his duel disk, nothing happened. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Nice try kid! But when a Synchro Monster summoned using Torapart attacks, the opponent can't activate any Trap cards!" Ushio explained.

Goyo Guardian swung his clubbed whip and struck Chanbara, causing the sword robot to shatter into particles of gold light. Yugo's life points took a slight drop to 3800.

"I activate Goyo Guardian's effect!" Ushio announced. "When Goyo Guardian destroys a monster, I can summon it to my side of the field in Defense Mode!"

A black portal appeared in the ground on Yugo's side of the field. Goyo Guardian swung his whip again and the end of it went into the portal. With one strong tug, the kabuki warrior pulled Chanbara out of the portal and over to Ushio's side of the battlefield.

"I set one card on the fiend and end my turn!" Ushio announced.

Yugo scowled as he drew his next card. The duel was starting to look like it would take a while, and he needed to end things quickly so he could go and save Rin. After taking a closer look at all the cards in his hand, Yugo suddenly realized that there was a way to end the duel.

"I summon Speedroid Horse Stilts in Attack Mode!" Yugo announced.

On cue, Yugo's robotic flying horse materialized on the battlefield.

"When Horse Stilts is summoned, I can special summon another level four or lower Speedroid monster from my hand!" Yugo continued. "I summon the Tuner monster, Speedroid Wrecking Cup Knight!"

Appearing next to Horse Stilts was a short humanoid robot wearing a grey suit of armor like a knight. Hanging from his back was a long red cape, and across his chest was a blue sash with gold trim. The knight had on brass-colored boots and a pair of metallic brass-colored gloves. The brass-colored visor of his helmet was up, revealing that his left eye was green while his right eye was red. In his right hand, the knight held a large gold staff resembling a cup and ball toy, only the ball was black and connected by a thick grey chain.

"I tune the level three Wrecking Cup Knight into the level four Horse Stilts for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Wrecking Cup Knight swung the ball attached to his staff into the ground before transforming into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Horse Stilts and transformed him into four white stars.

"Demon beast from the world of speed! Roar to life and run your enemies into the ground!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Rev up! Level seven! Hi-Speedroid Furious Diesel RC!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of red flames. The flames soon died away to reveal a black monster truck with a red flame pattern on the front and large wheels with chrome hubcaps styles to look like human skulls. The back of the truck had a long thick black antenna with a red top like the type of antenna found on an RC car. Mounted to the roof of the truck was the upper half of a black and red humanoid robot with long arms that ended with clawed hands each equipped with a knuckleduster. Its head was similar to that of a dragon, with a pair of yellow headlights for eyes and two long chrome horns that curved upward. The nostrils at the end of its snout breathed out plumes of red flames. On the back of the machine was a large engine with two sets of three chrome exhaust pipes arranged like a pair of wings.

"I attack Chanbara with Furious Diesel RC!" Yugo announced. "Nitro Demolition!"

"Not so fast! I activate my Trap, Shadow Spell!" Ushio announced. "This card prevents your monster from attacking and reduces its ATK!"

Yugo smirked. "That's just what I was hoping you'd do. I activate Furious Diesel RC's effect! Once during either player's Battle Phase, Furious Diesel RC can negate the activation of a Spell or Trap! Then he gains 1000 ATK until the end of the turn!"

Just as black chains shot from Ushio's Trap card to snare Yugo's monster, Furious Diesel RC breathed out a stream of flames that melted the chains to nothing. Furious Diesel RC's ATK then went up from 2700 to 3700. The monster machine then zoomed over to Ushio's side of the field and punched Chanbara, causing the sword robot to explode.

"And now the effect that Furious Diesel gained from Wrecking Cup Knight kicks in!" Yugo announced. "When a Wind monster that was summoned using Wrecking Cup Knight as Synchro Material destroys a level five or higher monster in battle, it deals the original ATK of the monster it destroyed as damage!"

Furious Diesel RC opened his mouth and breathed out a stream of flames at Ushio. Ushio was nearly knocked off his feet by the attack and his life points fell to 2000.

"Not bad, kid," Ushio praised. "But I've still got a monster left! Plus your little toy robot's ATK boost only lasts until the end of the turn!"

"True. But when Furious Diesel destroys a level five or higher monster in battle, he can make a second attack during that turn!" Yugo announced. "Furious Diesel! Attack Goyo Guardian and end this! Nitro Demolition!"

Furious Diesel's upper body swiveled to the right and punched Goyo Guardian in the face. Goyo Guardian burst into a ball of flames upon being struck, and Ushio's life points dropped to 1100. Afterwards, Furious Diesel RC breathed out another stream of flames down at Ushio. The security officer was knocked into his back and his remaining life points dropped to zero. With the duel at an end, Yugo's monster vanished from the field. Yugo went over to check on Ushio and found that the veteran officer had only been knocked out.

Ushio let out a heavy sigh. "Sorry I had to beat you so hard, but you didn't leave me much choice. Now to go find Rin."

"Not so fast, Sakaki," a familiar voice spoke. Yugo looked and saw Sid emerge from around the corner with a still brainwashed Saiga and Izzy.

"The only way you're going anywhere is if you get past us," Sid declared as he, Izzy and Saiga activated their duel disks.

Yugo's left eye twitched in frustration. "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

* * *

"For my first move, I activate the secondary effect of A Cell Recombination Device from the Graveyard!" Mortimer announced. "By banishing A Cell Recombination Device, I can add an Alien monster from my deck to my hand! I add my hand, the Tuner monster known as Alien Ammonite! Then I summon Alien Ammonite in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Mortimer's part of the battlefield was a floating green alien that resembled a prehistoric sea creature. It had a rough spiked spiral shell with two small horns, and beneath it was a mass of thin green tendrils. The longer tendrils were all tipped with large hook-like spikes.

"When Alien Ammonite is normal summoned, I can use its effect to revive a level four or lower Alien monster from my Graveyard," Mortimer continued. "And of course the monster I choose is Alien Shocktrooper!"

A misty black portal appeared on the ground beneath Alien Ammonite. The entity plunged its tendrils into the portal, and moments later pulled out the previously destroyed Alien Shocktrooper.

"Of course any monster summoned using Alien Ammonite's effect has its effects negated," Mortimer continued. "But then since Shocktrooper had no effects to begin with, there's no harm done."

"Obviously the only reason you brought back Shocktrooper was to use it as Synchro material," Ruka deduced.

"Very true," Mortimer continued. "But there is one other monster I need first. I remove one A-Counter from Nanashick to summon Alien Intellect back from the Graveyard!"

One of the purple blobs that were stuck to Nanashick glowed with an orange light before vanishing, leaving nothing but a feint burn mark on the wooden robot's body. Another misty black portal appeared on the ground on Mortimer's side of the battlefield. Rising out of the portal was a brownish-green creature resembling a head. It had a green frog-like face with two orange-red eyes, and on the sides of this head were two round brownish-yellow sections that resembled the sides of an exposed brain. The creature had two short stubby red tentacles sticking out from beneath its body right under its chin, and on its rear end was a long thick red tail.

"I now tune the level one Alien Ammonite into the level four Alien Shocktrooper and the level three Alien Intellect to Synchro Summon a level eight monster in Defense Mode!" Mortimer announced.

Alien Ammonite flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The rings encircled Mortimer's other two monsters and transformed them into seven white stars.

"Ultimate life form that rules the stars! Appear to us now to dominate this primitive world!" Mortimer chanted. "Synchro Summon! Descend, Cosmic Emperor Garchu'ak!"

The stars flashed and became a massive pillar of eerie green energy that expanded outward as it shot into the air. After a few moments the light finally faded to reveal a bloated mountainous gastropod-like creature behind Mortimer. The upper half of the thing was chalk-white and had two thick purple tentacles on the sides of its body in place of arms. It had an octopus-like head with four red eyes and a horned crest similar to the one that Alien Shocktrooper had on its head. Embedded in the very center of the creature's chest was a large pulsing green orb that gave off a sinister glow. The bulky lower half of the entity was red and had several small black vents running down the sides. Running down the length of the creature's back was a row of curved spikes that were the color of dried puss.

"What… what kind of Synchro Monster is that?" Hitomi asked as the color drained from her face. "It's… it's huge!"

"And it has 3500 DEF," Ruka added. "It's not going to be easy for us to beat."

Mortimer let out an obnoxious nasally laugh at Ruka's remark. "As if either of you have a chance of winning! I control every single aspect of this duel, as you will now see! I activate the effect granted to Garchu-ak by Alien Intellect! Once per turn, any monster that was summoned using Alien Intellect as Synchro Material can place a number of A-Counters on an opponent's monster equal to that monster's level! I place four A-Counters on Aromage Rosemary!"

Garchu'ak fired beams of light from its four eyes down at Rosemary. When the light cleared, four purple blobs were clinging to the blunette's dress.

"Now I activate a Spell card, A Cell Harvest!" Mortimer announced. "By targeting a monster with A-Counters on it, A Cell Harvest lets me remove those counters and draw a card for each one. I remove the four A-Counters I just placed on Rosemary to draw four cards!"

In an instant, the four blobs that were clinging to Rosemary's dress glowed orange and vanished, leaving discolored patches on the blunette's dress where they had been.

"I see. So those A-Counters of yours can be used for more than just controlling your opponent's monsters," Ruka observed.

"Indeed. They have quite a number of uses," Mortimer confirmed. "However, you have totally grasped the normal purpose of my precious A-Counters. I activate one of Garchu'ak's natural effects! Once per turn, Garchu'ak lets me take control of an opponent's monster with A-Counters attached. And the monster I choose is Karakuri Ninja mdl 7749 Nanashick!"

The pulsing orb in the center of Garchu'ak's chest began to glow even brighter. Nanashick's eyes began to glow green, and suddenly the robot ninja went over to Mortimer's part of the battlefield.

"I switch Nanashick back to Attack Mode," Mortimer continued. "Then I activate Burei's effect to switch Aromage Jasmine to Attack Mode as well!"

On cue, Burei waved his fan-like weapon and sent a gust of wind across the battlefield towards Jasmine. Jasmine was momentarily knocked off her feet upon being hit.

"And now I attack Jasmine with Nanashick!" Mortimer announced.

"Not so fast! I activate my Trap, Draining Shield!" Ruka announced. "This card cancels Nanashick's attack and increases my life points by an amount equal to its ATK!"

Just as Nanashick dashed across the field, a round silver shield appeared on Jasmine's arm. Jasmine moved her new weapon just in time to block the strike from one of Nanashick's daggers. After the attack, the shield vanished and Ruka's life points rose up to 7200.

"Well… I suppose I should've anticipated a move like that," a somewhat annoyed Mortimer remarked. "Ah well. You may have survived that attack, but your friend is wide open! I use Burei to attack Hitomi directly!"

"I activate my Trap, Negate Attack!" Hitomi quickly announced. "This card negates Burei's attack and ends the Battle Phase!"

The robot shogun waved his fan and sent another powerful gust of wind across the battlefield at Hitomi. Before the attack could hit though, a large vortex appeared in front of the pinkette and sucked the windblast in.

"How futile," Mortimer remarked. "I think now is the time to mention Garchu'ak's other effects. As long as Garchu'ak is on the field, other monsters I control that have A-Counters attached are treated as Alien monsters. And once per turn, I can sacrifice an Alien monster to inflict its original ATK points as damage! I sacrifice Burei to deal 2600 points of damage to both of you!"

Garchu'ak wrapped one of his tentacles around Burei, lifting the robotic shogun off the ground as it began to crush him. Burei shattered into particles of gold light and green electrical energy flowed up the tentacle and into Garchu'ak's chest. The giant alien abomination fired a massive blast of green light from the orb on its chest down at Ruka and Hitomi, creating a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, Hitomi was still standing, but she was breathing heavily and her life points had fallen to 1400. Ruka was still standing and trying to catch her breath as well, but her life points had only fallen to 7000.

"What!" Mortimer exclaimed upon seeing how many life points Ruka still had. "How is that possible? Your life points should've fallen much further than that!"

"When you activates Garchu'ak's effect, I activated the effect of Aromaseraphy Angelica from my hand," Ruka explained. "By discarding Angelica, I was able to gain life points equal to the ATK of an Aroma monster in the Graveyard. I used Angelica's effect to gain the 2400 ATK points of Aromage Bergamot."

"Then… that's why you sent Bergamot to the Graveyard earlier using Foolish Burial," an irritated Mortimer realized. "Fine then! I set two cards on the field and end my turn! But don't start acting so smug because of that little combo you just pulled, little girl! Nothing you do will change the outcome of my victory!"

Ruka calmly drew her next card. "We'll see about that."

* * *

Rua had been standing before the open closet for several minutes trying to figure out how Ruka and Hitomi had disappeared. From where he was standing, the green-haired boy could not see any kind of secret door or passageway, but then he realized such things would not be visible from the naked eye. Secret passages that could easily be seen by the average person would totally eliminate their effectiveness. Rua began to review everything that happened from the moment the girls had stepped into the closet. He recalled the door slamming shut and the strange light that had poured out from underneath.

Rua eventually reasoned that the only way to get to his sister and Hitomi was to spring the same trap that they had fallen into. After taking a deep breath, Rua leapt into the closet like he was about to tackle an intruder to the ground. The green-haired boy landed inside the small room on his feet and was very disappointed when nothing happened. Then, suddenly the door slammed shut and the floor of the closet lit up with a blinding green light. When the light faded, Rua found that he was suddenly falling through a vast glowing green tunnel. Rua didn't know where the tunnel ended, but he hoped very much that it would take him to the same place as Ruka and Hitomi. Rua braced himself for whatever might be waiting for him at the end of the fall.

* * *

"First I switch Aromage Jasmine back to Defense Mode," Ruka announced. "Then I activate the other effect of Aromaseraphy Angelica from the Graveyard! When my life points are higher than my opponent's and I control an Aroma monster, I can special summon Angelica from the Graveyard!"

Appearing on Ruka's part of the battlefield was a tiny little girl in the form of a fairy, with fair skin and long curly bluish-white hair styled into two raindrop-shaped buns at the top. Decorating her hair was a giant golden hair ornament in the shape of a flower. The little fairy had on a white dress with a long skirt, along with a pair of purple and white elbow-high gloves. On her back she had two pairs of large transparent fairy wings with ornate golden frames.

"I tune the level one Angelica into the level four Rosemary for a level five Synchro Summon!" Ruka announced.

Angelica flapped her wings, spreading a sparkling powder on the ground before changing into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Rosemary and shrunk in around her before entering her body. The blunette's entire body then began to glow with a blue light that washed out all of her features and leaving her as a blue silhouette that began to change shape.

"Sapphire witch of the soothing aroma! Gain the wings of the fairy and spread your scent across the land!" Ruka chanted. "Synchro Summon! A regal ascension! Aromaseraphy Rosemary!"

The light from Rosemary's body faded to reveal her in a new form. The blunette's ponytail had been undone, and decorating her blue hair was Angelica's giant golden flower hair ornament. The front of Rosemary's dress had become lighter in color, with the tail of her dress having gained a lavender tail shaped like flower petals. Decorating the blunette's chest was a large lavender bow with a gold star-shaped brooch. Rosemary's back had also sprouted the same large fairy wings that Angelica originally had.

"Because my life points are higher than my opponent's, Rosemary's effect raises the ATK and DEF of all of my Plant-Type monsters by 500!" Ruka announced. "Meaning Rosemary's ATK is now 2500! Rosemary! Attack Nanashick! Fragrance Storm!"

Rosemary waved her staff and sent a blast of wind and flower petals across the field at the wooden ninja. The attack struck Nanashick in the chest and caused him to explode, taking Mortimer's life points down to 3700.

"I end my turn!" Ruka announced.

Just as Hitomi was about to draw her next card, a large portal of green light opened up behind her and Ruka and Rua dropped out. The portal slammed shut as quickly as it had appeared. Rua was grumbling under his breath as he got back to his feet.

"Rua!" a surprised Ruka called. "Are you okay?"

"Ruka!" the green-haired boy responded. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Ruka and I may not be okay for much longer, I'm afraid," Hitomi told him.

"What do you mean?" Rua asked.

"Well, you're still conscious even after passing through my little wormhole," Mortimer observed, getting Rua's attention. "I have to admit I'm a little impressed."

"Wait a sec… you're that shrimp whose part of that guy, Divine's inner circle!" Rua recalled.

"What the… shrimp!" an outraged Mortimer repeated. "Once I'm finished with your two lady friends, I will make you eat those words!"

"Not gonna happen, pal!" Rua declared as he activated his duel disk.

"Intrusion penalty," spoke a computerized voice from Rua's duel disk. "2000 life points will now be deducted."

Rua winced as bolts of yellow electricity shocked him and took his life points down to 2000. The green-haired boy withstood the pain and drew his next card.

"I summon Morphtronic Scopen in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

Rua's giant microscope appeared on the field and instantly transformed into its robot form.

"I activate Scopen's effect and summon a level four Morphtronic from my hand!" Rua announced. "I summon Morphtronic Videon in Attack Mode!"

A giant handheld video camera materialized on the field next to Scopen and immediately converted into a humanoid robot.

"I tune the level three Scopen into the level four Videon for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rua announced.

Scopen flashed orange and transformed into three green rings of light. The rings then encircled Videon and changed the camera robot into four white stars.

"Abandoned guardian from a forgotten age! Be revived here and now to defend world peace!" Rua chanted. Synchro Summon! Awaken! Level seven! Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal Rua's broken-down robotic dragon.

"I activate the Spell card, Foolish Burial Goods and send Fairy Meteor Crush from the deck to the Graveyard!" Rua announced. "Next I activate Power Tool's effect! Once per turn, I can equip Power Tool with an Equip Spell from the Graveyard! I equip Power Tool with Fairy Meteor Crush, allowing him to inflict piercing damage! Also, Power Tool gains 100 ATK for each card equipped to him, meaning his ATK goes up to 2400!"

"Is that supposed to impress me?" an indifferent Mortimer asked. "In case you haven't noticed, Garchu'ak's DEF is 3500. It'll take more than a mere 2400 ATK for that old heap of yours to destroy him."

"I also equip Power Tool with the Spell card, 7 Completed!" Rua announced. "I use its effect to boost Power Tool's ATK by another 700 points! And because of his effect, Power Tool also gains another 100 ATK on top of that!"

Power Tool's body began to give off a feint red aura as his ATK went up to 3200.

"Finally I equip Power Tool with Axe of Despair to give him another 1000 ATK!" Rua continued.

A gnarled wooden axe glowing with a sinister red aura materialized in the robot dragon's hand. Power Tool's ATK climbed 4300 thanks to his new weapon.

"Well then, in that case I activate one of my face-down cards, A Cell Recombination Device!" Mortimer announced. "I use its effect to send Alien Mother from my deck to the Graveyard and place six A-Counters on that toy dragon of yours!"

A cluster of orange lights shot from the representations of Mortimer's Spell card and struck Power Tool in the chest, becoming six purple blobs that clung to the dragon's haul.

"Big deal! Like those weird counters of yours will stop me!" Rua responded. "Power Tool! Attack whatever that thing is on the shrimp's side of the field! Crafty Demolition!"

"At this moment, I activate the Continuous Trap, Paralysis Beam!" Mortimer announced. "While Paralysis Beam is on the field, any monster my opponent has with A-Counters on it becomes unable to attack or change its battle position!"

Just as Power Tool was about to take off across, the field towards Garchu'ak, a beam of purple light fired from Mortimer's trap and struck Power Tool in the chest. The A-Counters clinging to Power Tool began to glow orange and the dragon had become frozen like a statue.

"What? No way!" Rua exclaimed.

"How predictable," Mortimer remarked. "Simpletons like you always try to overcome everything with brute force. The fact is you never stood a chance against me."

"Dang it!" Rua cursed. "I end my turn!"

Hitomi drew her next card and let out a sigh of defeat. "I summon Karakuri Solider mdl 236 Nisamu in Defense Mode and end my turn."

Appearing on Hitomi's part of the field was a humanoid robot made out of mostly wood. It had a large red lens and two smaller green lenses for eyes, and the gears of its neck, shoulders and knees could clearly be seen. On its back was a large pack that had been made from a wooden barrel, and in its hands the robots held a long green stick of bamboo as a staff.

"Sorry guys. This is the best I can do," Hitomi told the twins.

"Don't worry Hitomi. You'll get him in the next round," Ruka told her.

"I'm afraid she won't have the chance," Mortimer declared as he drew his next card. "I activate the secondary effect of A Cell Recombination Device and banish it from the Graveyard to add Alien Overlord to my hand! Next I play the Field Spell known as Otherworld – The A Zone!"

Suddenly the entire laboratory was transformed into a swirling multicolored mist. The four duelists were standing on a giant floating grey meteor. Several other smaller meteors made of the same type of rock floated all around them in the distance.

"While The A Zone is on the field, any monster that does battle with an Alien loses 300 ATK and DEF during the battle," Mortimer announced. "Next I activate Garchu'ak's natural ability and take control of Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!"

The light coming from the orb in the center of Garchu'ak's chest began to shine brighter once again, causing Power Tool's fully functioning eye to glow green. Soon after, the mechanical dragon flew over to Mortimer's part of the field.

"I activate the effect Garchu'ak inherited from Alien Intellect and place five A-Counters on Rosemary!" Mortimer announced.

Garchu'ak once again fired beams of light from its four eyes down at Rosemary. When the light faded, there was one A-Counter clinging to each of Rosemary's wings, and a fourth attached to the front of her skirt.

"Now I remove two of the A-Counters attached to Rosemary to special summon Alien Overlord!" Mortimer announced.

The two A-Counters attached to Rosemary's lower pair of wings glowed green and flew off and struck the ground on Mortimer's part of the field, causing a column of green light to shoot into the air. The light faded after a moment to reveal a bipedal reptile that was covered mostly in black scaly armor. It had a red jaw and tail, and six slender red arms with black clawed hands that grew from its sides. Embedded in the center of its chest was a purple double-barreled cannon.

"Finally I summon Alien Warrior in Attack Mode!" Mortimer announced.

Materializing next to Alien Overlord was a hulking grey reptilian creature that stood on two legs. It had large clawed hands and feet, and embedded in its chest were two dark-grey spheres. Much of its body looked like it was covered in armor.

"And now for the battle!" Mortimer announced. "I use Junkyard Power Tool Dragon to attack Aromage Jasmine! And because Power Tool is now an Alien thanks to Garchu'ak's effect, your Jasmine loses 300 of her DEF points during the battle thanks to The A Zone!"

Power Tool flew across the field and slammed his backhoe claw into Jasmine. The white-haired plant mage shattered into particles of gold light upon being struck, and Ruka's life points dropped to 4800.

"Now I attack Rosemary with Alien Overlord!" Mortimer announced. "And I should mention that when Overlord battles a monster with A-Counters attached, that monster loses 300 ATK for each one! Tyrant Cannon!"

The purple spheres embedded in the overlord's chest on each side of its cannon barrel lit up. Alien Overlord roared and fired a blast of purple light at Rosemary. The blue-haired fairy was instantly vaporized upon being hit, and Ruka's life points dropped to 4500.

"Ruka! Are you okay?" a worried Rua asked.

"You should be a bit more concerned about yourself," Mortimer told him. "Alien Warrior! Attack that simpleton directly! Otherworld Claw!"

The reptilian warrior charged across the field and slashed Rua across the chest with the claws of his large right hand. Rua cried out as the attack knocked him to the ground and his life points dropped to a mere 200.

"And now for the finishing touch," Mortimer spoke with an evil grin. "I activate Garchu'ak's effect and sacrifice Alien Warrior to deal 1800 points of damage!"

Garchu'ak reached down with one of its tentacles and crushed Alien Warrior, causing green electrical energy to flow up the appendage and into the orb on its chest. The cosmic abomination down at Mortimer's three opponents and caused a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, Ruka was still standing but her life points had fallen to 2700. Meanwhile, both Rua and Hitomi were on the ground unconscious. Both of their life points had fallen to zero, and Hitomi's remaining monster had vanished.

After a few moments, Ruka saw her brother and her friend down on the ground. "Rua… Hitomi…"

At that moment, Mortimer let out another obnoxious nasally laugh. "And now you're all alone. I must admit that you're a bit stronger than most of the opponents I've faced in the past. It's no wonder that Divine thinks there might be a future for you in the Movement. As for your two companions though, they were far too weak."

Suddenly a horrible thought came to Ruka's mind. "Are… are they…"

"Dead?" Mortimer finished. "Well… they might be. I'm afraid that I do tend to get carried away sometimes when I've been angered, and your brother's comments about mu height did get under my skin. But don't feel too badly for them. They didn't have much of a future anyway. You on the other hand might just have a place here."

"You… you killed my brother…" Ruka spoke in a low hate-filled voice. "The only family I had left."

"Uh, hey. If you really feel that badly about it, I apologize," Mortimer told her. "But he would've only continued to hold you back. Now that he's out of the way, you have a chance at unlocking your full potential."

"…I'll never forgive you," Ruka told him as she reached for her deck. "I'm going to… make you pay!"

As Ruka drew her next card, a gust of wind picked up around her. Mortimer suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

"I summon the Tuner monster, King Regulus in Attack Mode!" Ruka announced.

Materializing on Ruka's side of the field was a white lion with a golden mane and a gold tuft of fur at the end of his tail. Much of his body was covered in silver armor with large round green gems adorning the shoulders and hips, and growing from the lion's forehead was a silver horn surrounded by red markings. Growing from the lion's back was a large pair of gold-feathered wings.

"When King Regulus is summoned, I can special summon a level three or lower monster from my hand!" Ruka announced. "I summon Aromage Cananga!"

Regulus let out a loud roar, and appearing next to him was a woman with light-green hair and brown eyes behind a pair of glasses with grey frames. She had on a brown dress with gold trim and a large white section on the front, along with a pair of long brown pants with white and green shoes. Atop her head was a white cap with light-green markings on the top, and covering her hands was a pair of brown gloves. She had on a loose green scarf around her neck, and slung to her back was a green duffle bag and a long brown hooked staff with a lit candle hanging from the top.

"I tune the level four King Regulus into the level three Cananga for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Ruka announced.

The winged lion let out another roar before changing into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Cananga and transformed the green-haired plant mage into three white stars.

"Divine light of creation, shine forth and bring new life to the land!" Ruka chanted. "Synchro Summon! A regale birth! Level seven! Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the sky and expanded outward. After a few moments, the light faded to reveal Ruka's blue serpentine dragon. Upon her arrival, Ancient Fairy let out a loud roar that echoed across the battlefield.

* * *

Yugo was still fighting a Battle Royale against Sid, Izzy and Saiga. Sid had his Goyo Predator on the field, while Saiga had summoned a silver and brass-colored robot carrying a sniper rifle known as Machina Sniper. Izzy meanwhile had out a minotaur-like monster clad in red and gold armor known as Enraged Battle Ox. Of Yugo's three opponents, Saiga had taken the most damage over the course of the duel. With Speedroid Terrortop having just been special summoned, Yugo summoned Red-Eyed Dice and used its effect to change Terrortop's level.

"I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the now level six Terrortop for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Terrortop and transformed the train of tops into six white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal Yugo's cybernetic dragon. Clear Wing let out a loud roar, and suddenly Yugo's heart began to pound and his back felt as though it was on fire. In the distance, Yugo thought he could hear the roar of another dragon as though it was responding to Clear Wing. For some reason, the roar sounded familiar. Clear Wing roared again, and suddenly a series of images began to flood into Yugo's head.

Yugo could see Ruka standing on a rock floating in space with an unconscious Rua and Hitomi on the ground behind her. Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon was out on the rock with Ruka and calling out. Yugo could also sense a strong feeling coming from Ruka, a feeling of intense anger. The green-haired girl's rage began to consume Yugo and caused his own anger to build.

"You bastards!" Yugo cursed in a hate-filled voice. "I'm gonna tear you to pieces! Clear Wing! Annihilate Machina Sniper! Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Clear Wing rose into the air as a twister of green wind formed around his body. The dragon dove down towards Machina Sniper and rammed into the mechanical gunman at full speed. The pieces that were left of Machina Sniper exploded and Saiga was knocked onto his back as the few life points he had left fell to zero. Both Sid and Izzy went totally pale upon seeing Saiga knocked out.

"Oh… wow!" Sid exclaimed. "That was pretty harsh."

"Yeah man. Do we really have to make this guy submit to the will of Arcadia?" Izzy asked.

"Well, the master ordered us to make him submit. So… we're kinda stuck," Sid told him.

"Get ready, 'cause I'm gonna tear both your heads off!" an enraged Yugo declared as Clear Wing let out another roar.

"…Man, we are so screwed," Izzy told Sid.

"Oh yeah," Sid agreed.

* * *

"When Ancient Fairy is Synchro Summoned, she increases my life points by 500 times the number of special summoned monsters on the field other than herself," Ruka announced. "You have three monsters on the field that have been special summoned, which means I gain 1500 life points."

Ancient Fairy flapped her stained glass wings and sparkles of light rained down on the field. The lights caused Ruka's life points to rise to 4200.

"I activate Ancient Fairy's other effect!" Ruka announced. "By sending a Field Spell on either side of the field to the Graveyard, I can special summon a number of monsters from my Graveyard for each Synchro Monster on the field. I destroy Otherworld – The A Zone to summon Aromaga Cananga, Aromaseraphy Rosemary and Aromage Bergamot!"

Ancient Fairy roared as her body gave off an explosion of multicolored light, washing out the entire battlefield. When the light cleared, Ruka and Mortimer were both back in the lab with the still unconscious Rua and Hitomi. A field of green grass sprouted from the polished floor of the room, and three large flowers sprang up on Ruka's side of the battlefield. Canaga emerged from the first of the flowers as it blossomed, while Rosemary emerged from the second in her fairy form. Emerging from the final blossom was a young man with slightly long red hair, wearing a long red cape with gold trim and points at the end like flower petals. He had on a long-sleeved white shirt with red and gold leather armor covering his chest, and a sort of red and gold skirt around his waist. The rest of his outfit consisted of long baggy white pants with black and gold shoes that had curled toes, and in his hand was a gnarled black wooden staff with a candle at the top.

"And just what do you expect to do with those pathetic monsters?" Mortimer asked. "You've put up a good fight, but it's time you accepted defeat."

"I activate the Spell card, Aroma Storm!" Ruka announced. "When my life points are higher than my opponent's and I have at least one Aroma monster on the field, I can return as many Aroma monsters I control to my hand as possible. Then for each monster returned to the hand, I can return a specially summoned monster you control back to the hand as well! After that, you take 500 points of damage for each Aroma monster returned to the hand this turn! I send Cananga, Rosemary and Bergamot back to my hand to get rid of your three monsters!"

Ruka's three Aroma monsters raised their staffs in the air and flashed with busts of green, blue and red lights. A twister of wind filled with flower petals, formed in their place as the lights faded and moved across the field. Mortimer's three monsters were sucked into the twister as it grew in size and vanished into thin air. The twister kept moving and enveloped Mortimer. The mind control psychic cried out as bolts of pink lightning shocked his body. When the twister finally subsided after a few moments, Mortimer was standing and catching his breath, and his life points had fallen to 2200.

"When King Regulus is used to summon a Light Dragon-Type Synchro Monster, that monster gains 1000 ATK," Ruka revealed. "Meaning that right now, Ancient Fairy's ATK as 3100. Ancient Fairy. …Attack him directly! Everlasting Sunlight!"

Mortimer went totally pale as the gemstone on the dragon's chest began to shine with a gold light. "Oh… crap…"

Ancient Fairy let out another roar as she fired a beam of light from her gem. The blast totally enveloped Mortimer and his life points fell to zero. At the same time, Mortimer's helmet began to short-circuit and spark with blue electricity, causing him to cry out. When Ancient Fairy's attack ended, Mortimer collapsed to the ground and was out cold. With the duel at an end, Ruka's dragon vanished.

Only a few moments later, Ruka heard the sound of Rua stirring. The green-haired girl turned around in time to see her twin starting to sit up.

"Ow…" Rua spoke as he held the side of his head. "Okay, that was not fun."

Ruka immediately rushed and got down on her knees, pulling her brother into a hug. The green-haired girl began to sob into Rua's shirt.

"Whoa! Hey! Ruka, I'm fine," Rua assured her as he patted the back of her head. "I'm a bit sore, but I'm okay."

"I thought… you were dead," Ruka told him as she continued to sob.

A few moments later, Hitomi regained consciousness and slowly got back to her feet. After noticing that the twins were having a moment, the pinkette looked over and noticed the unconscious Mortimer. Hitomi went over and noticed that Mortimer's eyes were wide open, and a trail of drool was starting to roll down from the corner of his mouth. She also saw the smoke rising from his helmet.

"Uh, guys? I don't think Mortimer's doing too well," Hitomi informed the twins. "I can't be sure, but I think maybe his helmet fried his brain or something."

"Who cares about that?" Rua asked as Ruka continued to cry into his shirt.

"Well, Mortimer said that he was the one controlling everyone's minds," Hitomi explained. "So if he's out cold and the device that was enhancing his powers is broken, it stands to reason that the people he was controlling have been released."

"I hope you're right about that," Rua told her. "This place will be a lot safer without a bunch of mind-controlled zombies running around."

* * *

Yugo had just finished his Battle Royale and had knocked out Sid and Izzy. With the duel over, the young turbo duelist was leaning against the wall trying to get some rest. He couldn't remember what had come over him during the duel after he had summoned Clear Wing.

"Man… what the heck got into me?" Yugo asked himself.

After a few moments, Ushio woke up and got back to his feet holding his head. "What the hell am I doing out here?"

"Ushio? Are you really you again?" Yugo asked.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Ushio asked with a raised eyebrow. "What's going on here kid?"

"You mean you don't remember?" Yugo asked. "You and just about everyone else was under some kind of mind control. I ended up having to duel you."

"Mind control? Are we up against Iliaster?" an alarmed Ushio asked.

"Nah. The Arcadia Movement stabbed us in the back," Yugo answered. "Look, none of that is really important right now! Just before you came after me, Rin fell through some kind of trapdoor! We have to go find her!"

"Alright. I'll give you a hand," Ushio told him.

At that moment, Sid, Saiga and Izzy all started to wake up. The three of them seemed just as confused as Ushio had been.

"Dang! I feel kinda hung over," Izzy remarked.

"Ushio, what's going on here?" Sid asked.

"Well the short version is that the Arcadia Movement has apparently betrayed us," Ushio explained. "Don't ask me for details, because I don't know 'em."

Suddenly, Yugo recalled the image he had seen of Ruka and the other two kids. "Oh crap! Rua, Ruka and Hitomi! Don't ask me how I know, but I think they might be in trouble!"

"Where are they?" Ushio asked.

"I don't know," Yugo answered. "Crow had us split up as we were trying to get away from you guys."

"Sid. Take Saiga and Izzy and go look for those kids," Ushio ordered. "I'll go with Yugo to try and find Rin."

"I still have no idea what's going on, but whatever you say," Sid replied.

With that, Yugo headed down the corridor with Ushio while Sid and the others went the other way.

* * *

Crow and Shinji had split up earlier to try and make it harder for them to get captured. While trying to find a place to hide and plan his next move, the redhead ended up in a small room that had sucked him into some kind of wormhole. The experience had rendered Crow unconscious. When he woke up, Crow found that he was in some kind of dark underground stadium. He was surprised to find his D-Wheel not far away from where he had ended up on the ground.

"Crow Hogan!" a familiar voice spoke.

The lights in the stadium came on, and Crow saw Asuka Quinn a few feet away sitting atop a white D-Wheel. The front of the green-haired girl's vehicle was styled to look like the head of a wolf with ice-blue eyes. Asuka had on a skin-tight riding suit that was unzipped a little at the top to reveal her cleavage, along with a white helmet with a blue visor that was also styled like the head of a wolf.

"You're one of that bastard, Divine's lieutenants, right?" Crow recalled. "Asuka Quinn."

"That is not my real name," the green-haired girl revealed. "Tell me, have you ever heard of a duelist known as Anastasia Stirba?"

A chill went down Crow's spine upon hearing the name. "Yeah… I've heard of her. She was one of the most savage underground duelists in Neo Domino. They called her the Heartless Wolf. There are even rumors that Neo Domino Security hired her to bring down Sergey Volkov. Wait a minute… are you saying that…"

"Yes. I am Anastasia Stirba," the green-haired girl revealed. "Master Divine had me used an assumed name when we first met because he thought you and your companions might be too intimidated to be in the presence of both the Heartless Wolf and the Black Rose Witch."

"Well it is super shady at the very least," Crow told her. "If my friends and I had known Divine had duelists like you working for him, we would've left your castle as quickly as we came."

"That is exactly why I was ordered to use an alias," Anastasia told him. "Not that it matters now. Master Divine has ordered that you and some of your friends be tested to see if you are worthy of joining the Arcadia Movement."

"So he gave you the job of testing me," Crow deduced.

"You will not be permitted to leave this stadium until you defeat me," Anastasia informed him. "For the record, the rumor you heard about me defeating Sergey Volkov is true. The director of Neo Domino Security and the City Council were both very desperate to be rid of him."

"Yeah? Then I guess I've got my work cut out for me," Crow realized as he mounted his D-Wheel and put on his helmet. "You may have brought down the guy they called the Duelist Crusher, but you've met your match with me."

* * *

 **Important Author's Note:** Those of you reading might've noticed that Yugo used a couple of new Speedroid monsters in this chapter. The Synchro Monster he used, Furious Diesel RC was originally the creation of my good friend, Firebolt the Blazing Saint. Of course I did sort of end up changing the name of it a little (I added the RC part) along with the design of the monster and its effects. The other new monster that Yugo used, Speedroid Wrecking Cup Knight, is a monster that's totally of my own creation. The inspiration for it came from one of my favorite Speedroids, Den-Den Daiko Duke. Wrecking Cup Knight's different colored eyes are a small reference to how Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon had a damage effect that applied to level five or higher monsters in the anime.

Those of you reading probably also noticed that I went back on what I said earlier and changed the Asuka character's name. Rather than going back and editing the previous chapters though, I did the name change as part of the story. Maybe that wasn't the best move, but it was the one I felt most comfortable with at the time. The fact is I had never really developed the character all that much for this version of the story. Yesterday I had the idea that maybe she was some kind of infamous duelist who had to live under an assumed name.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	11. Queens of Arcadia

**Author's Note:** This next chapter is also going to feature two duels that'll be happening side by side. I did this partly as a way to try and get to other parts of the story a little quicker, but it also made a lot of sense that a lot of the events of this situation that our characters find themselves in would be happening at the same time.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 11: Queens of Arcadia

Shinji slowly awoke inside a large darkened room to find a spotlight shining down on him. He turned his head and found that his D-Wheel was only just a few feet away from him. As he sat up, he tried to recall just what had happened to him. The thing that Shinji remembered was he and Crow had split up to try and make it harder for the Arcadia Movement to capture them. Shinji had ended up going into the first room he found so that he could hide and try to come up with a plan, when he suddenly fell through some kind of hole made of green light. He had blacked out sometime shortly after that point.

"Hey there, stud," an all too familiar voice spoke from the darkness as Shinji stood up.

Another spotlight came down, and a few feet away Shinji saw Matsuri sitting atop a white and pink D-Wheel. The pinkette had on a tight-fitting white bodysuit decorated with glittering pink stars. Matsuri also had on a white helmet with a pink stripe down the middle and a green visor.

"Glad you finally woke up," Matsuri spoke. "I was starting to get bored."

"Matsuri!" Shinji identified. "What the hell is all this about anyway?"

"Divine wanted to test you and some of your friends to see if they're worthy of joining the Movement," Matsuri explained. "And I've been chosen to give you your exam. Lucky me, huh?"

"Yeah? Well I'm not interested in joining Divine's twisted little group," Shinji told her. "Now I'm getting out of here."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice," Matsuri told him. "The only way out of this stadium right now is to beat me in a duel, which I'm sorry to say is kind of a long shot."

"Stadium?" Shinji repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh-huh. Check it out," Matsuri replied before snapping her fingers.

On cue, more lights came on inside the room, revealing that it was in fact a large underground track used for turbo duels.

"This facility has three underground stadiums that we use for testing potential candidates for the Movement," Matsuri explained. "The one we're in is the East Stadium. Your little buddy, Crow Hogan should be in the West Stadium right now going through his exam."

"I see… well in that case, I guess I have no choice," Shinji realized as he mounted his D-Wheel and put on his helmet. "I'll beat you, and then Crow and I are gonna go and beat the crap out of that son of a bitch, Divine!"

"That's the spirit!" Matsuri told him. "Now let's get this show on the road."

With that, Shinji and Matsuri moved their D-Wheels to the start of the track and revved their engines.

"Action Field on!" Matsuri called as she pointed a finger into the air. "Neon Highway!"

In an instant, the drab grey racetrack began to transform. The track itself had begun to glow pink, with flashing green triangles with arrows directing the riders in which direction they were supposed to go. The rest of the ground had become checkered with green and black squares, and the walls and ceiling had vanished to show an endless sky covered by a sea of neon-blue clouds. Floating through the air in places were neon signs of different colors, some in the form of musical notes and some in the form of playing card suites. An explosion of white light ignited in the sky above and several cards began to fall over the field.

Before the falling cards could hit the ground, Matsuri and Shinji took off down the track. Shinji's D-Wheel quickly pulled ahead of Matsuri's, but before he could reach the first corner the pinkette suddenly sped up and outpaced him.

"Looks like the first turn is mine," Matsuri observed. "For my first move, I summon Idol Girl Ashley in Attack Mode!"

A spotlight came down from above on a spot next to Matsuri's D-Wheel, and in a puff of blue smoke appeared a young woman with fair skin, long wavy blue hair and sapphire eyes. She had on a glittering sleeveless blue top with white lapels that showed off her midriff, along with a very short glittering blue skirt and a thick white belt. The rest of the girl's outfit consisted of a pair of white knee-high boots and white gloves. Peaking out from beneath the young woman's hair was part of a white headset microphone.

"You summoned a monster with only 1000 ATK in Attack Mode?" Shinji observed with a raised eyebrow.

"Her ATK won't be that low for long," Matsuri told him. "When Ashley is summoned to the field normally, I can add another Idol Girl monster to my hand. Now, because I have an Idol monster on the field, I can special summon the monster I just added to my hand with Ashley's effect! Take the stage, Idol Girl Kelly!"

Another spotlight came down from above, and with a cloud of red smoke appeared another young woman with long red hair styled in a braided ponytail and red eyes. She had on an outfit almost identical to Ashley's only hers was red instead of blue.

"Both Ashley and Kelly gain 500 ATK points for every Idol monster on the field other than themselves," Matsuri announced. "Which means right now each of them has an ATK of 1500. I'll set one card on the field and end my turn."

Shinji drew his first card. "I summon Battlewasp – Arbalest the Rapidfire in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Shinji's D-Wheel was a large almost human-sized wasp with a golden-yellow head with black red feelers and large red eyes. It had black legs and two pairs of wings on the back of a thick purple thorax. The insect had a bulky purple abdomen with thin golden-yellow stripes and a grey stinger.

"I use Arbalest to attack Ashley!" Shinji announced.

"And I activate my Trap, Battle Dance Counter!" Matsuri announced. "When one of my Idol monsters is attacked, this card negates that attack and drops the ATK of the attacking monster by 200 points for each Idol monster I have on the field!"

Just as Arbalest had flown half way across the battlefield, a pair of blue and red spotlights came down from above onto Matsuri's two monsters and began to flash on and off to the rhythm of a techno beat that began to play through the stadium. The ground became covered in a thick pink mist and Ashley and Kelly held their right hands out palm first while placing their left hands on their waists while rocking their hips to the music. Arbalest remained hovering where he was and tilted his head in confusion at the sight he was seeing. Suddenly Kelly seemed to vanish, only to reappear a split second later and bumped her butt into Arbalest's back. The giant wasp was propelled forward by the attack towards Ashley, only for the blunette to turn around and strike Arbalest with her own rear.

Arbalest was hurled back towards Kelly, who grabbed onto the wasp and twirled around with him two times before spinning him like a top back towards Ashley. Ashley repeated the same move that the redhead had just performed and spun Arbalest back towards Shinji's D-Wheel. Kelly reappeared next to Ashley, and the two of them blew Arbalest a kiss as the music came to an end and the pink mist vanished from the battlefield. Arbalest wobbled in the air, nearly crashing into Shinji's D-Wheel at one point. The wasp's ATK had fallen from 1800 to 1400.

"What… what the hell was that?" a bewildered Shinji asked.

"Dazzled yet big boy?" Matsuri asked with a playful smirk. "You might wanna pace yourself, because this show has only just begun."

"I… dammit!" Shinji cursed. "I set two cards on the field and end my turn!"

Matsuri drew her next card and grinned. "Get ready, Shinji baby. I'm about to rock your world."

* * *

As Shinji and Matsuri's duel was just getting underway, Crow and Anastasia had moved their D-Wheels up to the start of the track. Crow had to admit that he was more than a bit nervous about dueling the woman who had taken down Sergey Volkov, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

"Action Field on!" Anastasia called out. "Frigid Mountain Pass!"

In an instant, the drab underground racetrack that Crow and Anastasia were in was completely transformed. The pair of turbo duelists was now on an old dirt road that went along the side of an icy mountain. Thick dark clouds covered the sky above, making it seem like a storm could break out at any time. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of white light in the sky and several cards rained down upon the battlefield. Crow and Anastasia took off down the road before the cards hit the ground. Just as Crow was about to take the first corner, Anastasia's D-Wheel pushed past him, skidding the side of the redhead's D-Wheel and nearly knocking him off the side of the mountain.

"Hey! You don't have to play so rough, you know!" Crow protested.

"We are in a battle, and in a battle there is no room for mercy!" Anastasia told him. "If you fall off the mountain and crash, you have only your own weakness to blame! Now, my turn! I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

Crow drew his first card. He found it a bit unsettling that Anastasia had only played a single facedown card on the field. The redhead wondered if perhaps Anastasia was having hand trouble of some kind, but Crow had a feeling that it couldn't be as simple as that. He had to be cautious, but he also couldn't afford to hold anything back either.

"I summon Blackwing – Pinaki the Waxing Moon in Attack Mode!" Crow announced.

Materializing by Crow's D-Wheel was a small almost humanoid bird creature with a large yellow beak and a body covered in brownish-black feathers. He had large blue eyes and large yellow talons with grey claws for feet. The bird creature had on a blue vest, and atop his head was a white turban with a long black ponytail coming out of the top and two small red feathers stuck in the left side. In his left wing, the bird held a small thick bow, and with his right wing he held another red feather that seemed to serve as an arrow.

"Because I have a Blackwing on the field, I can special summon Blackwing – Bora the Spear!" Crow announced.

Appearing next to Pinaki was a man wearing a large mask on his head resembling the orange head of a bird with a large dark-yellow beak and long yellow feathers hanging down from the bottom. On his back was a large pair of black-feathered wings, and long black tail feathers grew from his rear end. The man had dark-yellow talons for feet, and in his hand he carried a large black lance.

"I tune the level three Pinaki into the level four Bora for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Crow announced.

Pinaki flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Bora and transformed him into four white stars.

"Wet those pitch-black wings! Along with the drizzling rain, bring forth one strike of lightning!" Crow chanted. "Syncrho Summon! Pierce through, Assault Blackwing – Chidori the Rain Sprinkling!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light, fading to reveal a green-eyed warrior clad in a black bird-like costume. On his head was a black and white mask in the form of a bird's head with a yellow beak, red eyes and long feathers at the back. White feathers covered the man's chest, and both his arms were clad in dark-grey armor. Pieces of dark-blue cloth hung down around his waist, and he had on long white pants with brown, black and grey armor covering his left leg. The warrior's lower legs were covered in black feathers, and he had yellow talons with black claws in place of normal feet. On the warrior's back was a pair of large black-feathered wings with silver blades sticking out of each one. In his left hand the birdman held a long sword with a shining blade.

"Because you just special summoned a monster, I can now summon White Fang – Brutus of the Crushing Avalanche!" Anastasia suddenly announced.

Appearing next to Anastasia's D-Wheel was a muscular man with slightly tanned skin. On his head was a hood made from the head of a white wolf, with the rest of the wolf's pelt serving as a short cape. The man was shirtless, and decorating his chest was a blue mark resembling a paw print. He had on long brown pants and white boots, along with a tattered off-white breechcloth hanging down the front of his waist. In his right hand the warrior held a dark-grey mace.

"When Brutus has been summoned from my hand using his effect, I can special summon another White Fang monster!" Anastasia announced. "Appear, White Fang – Kruger of the Swift Claws!"

Appearing next to Brutus was a lean but well-muscled warrior also wearing a hood and cape made from the pelt of a white wolf. A red cloth covered the lower half of his face, and he had on a short-sleeved black shirt with brown leather armor covering his chest. The rest of the man's outfit consisted of long brown pants with black boots, and a thin red breechcloth hanging down from the front of his waist. In each hand, the masked warrior held a set of three long knives.

"When Kruger has been special summoned from my hand, his effect lets me inflict damage to my opponent equal to the attack of another White Fang monster I control," Anastasia continued. "I inflict Brutus's 1800 ATK as damage!"

A red aura flowed from Brutus into Kruger's six knives. Kruger threw the glowing knives across the battlefield at Crow, causing him to almost drive his D-Wheel off the road. Crow survived the attack, but his life points had fallen to 2200.

"When I've inflicted damage to my opponent using a card effect, I can special summon the Tuner monster, White Fang – Sasha of the Snowy Fleece from my hand!" Anastasia announced.

Materializing near Anastasia's other two monsters was a young-looking woman with long blond hair that grew half way down her back. Covering the upper half of her face was a mask made from the head of a white wolf, and hanging from her back was a long black cape. She had on a short-sleeved blue shirt with brown leather armor covering her chest, along with a short tattered grey skirt and brown leather knee-high boots. On her hands, the woman had on fingerless brown leather gloves.

"When Sasha has been summoned using her effect, she inflicts 300 points of damage to my opponent for each White Fang monster I have on the field!" Anastasia continued. "Since I have three White Fang monsters on the field, you take 900 points of damage!"

Sasha raised her arms forward and fired a blast of ice-blue light from her palms. Crow was blasted in the face by the attack, causing his D-Wheel to wobble. When Sasha's attack ended, his life points were down to 1300.

"Damn!" Crow exclaimed. "You really are a tough one, Stirba. It's still my turn, and you've already taken out half my life points. But, I still have the edge right now. Chidori gains 300 ATK points for each Blackwing monster in my Graveyard. Since I have two Blackwings in my Graveyard, Chidori's ATK is at 3200."

"If you think you have the advantage, then go ahead and move in for the kill," Anastasia coldly told him. "Anything less would be an insult to me." She looked back at Crow with a cold angry look in her eyes. "And I do not take well to being insulted."

Crow flinched upon seeing the look in the green-haired girl's eyes. "Okay then. I attack Sasha of the Snowy Fleece with Chidori!"

"At this moment I activate my Trap, Urgent Tuning!" Anastasia announced. "With this card, I perform a Synchro Summon during this Battle Phase! I tune the level one Sasha of the Snowy Fleece with the level three Kruger of the Swift Claws and the level four Brutus of the Crushing Avalanche for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Sasha's body flashed blue before changing into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Anastasia's other two monsters and transformed them into seven white stars.

"Ruthless hunter of the snowy wastes! Appear before us now and soak this land in blood!" Anastasia chanted. "Synchro Summon! Howl! Alpha White Fang – Orion of the Frozen Axe!"

The stars flashed and became a blast of snow and ice that expanded outward. After a few moments, the snow died away to reveal a hulking male warrior wearing a hood and cape made from the pelt of a white wolf. He had gold feral animal eyes, and covering the lower half of his face was a dark-blue mask. The warrior also had on a long-sleeved dark-blue shirt, with white armor covering his chest and shoulders, along with long black pants and tan boots with white fur covering his lower legs. A white breechcloth hung down from the front of his waist, and hanging from the side of his brown belt was a large dagger in a brown leather sheath. Fingerless brown gloves covered the warrior's hands, and his forearms were clad totally in white fur. In both hands, he held a long silver double-bladed axe.

"When Orion has been Synchro Summoned, he reduces the ATK of an opponent's monster by 800 and deals 800 points of damage to my opponent!" Anastasia announced. "And of course the monster I target with this effect is Chidori the Rain Sprinkling!"

Orion swung his large axe and sent a massive blade of ice blue light across the battlefield. Chidori was hit by the attack, and he clutched his chest as his ATK dropped to 2400. The energy blade kept on going until it struck Crow, taking his life points down further to a mere 500.

"Orion has an ATK of 2800," Anastasia continued. "Which means the advantage is now mine."

"Crap!" Crow cursed. "Guess I'll just set one card on the field and end my turn. During the end of my turn though, I activate Pinaki's effect in the Graveyard and add another Blackwing monster from my deck to my hand. The card I add to my hand is Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow."

Anastasia calmly drew her next card. "Prepare yourself, because I'm about to bathe this track in your blood."

* * *

After Ruka had finally calm down, the twins and Hitomi had left Mortimer's lab. The trio found itself in a long dim corridor of brick that seemed to go on forever. They had been walking for several minutes trying to find some kind of exit. Ruka had wound up dozing off before leaving the lab, leaving Rua to carry her on his back

"This place is totally creepy," Rua remarked. "How much longer before we find a way out?"

"There's really no way to tell," Hitomi answered. "None of us have been down to this part of the castle."

"…You must think I'm pretty uncool, huh Hitomi?" Rua assumed.

"Why? Because you're unsettled about being in this dungeon or whatever it is?" the pinkette asked. "I actually find this place to be pretty creepy as well."

"It's not just that," Rua told her. "I barged into that duel to try and save you and Ruka, but in the end I got wiped out. Guess I'm not all that cool, huh?"

"Rua, what you did back at that lab was very brave," Hitomi told him. "It's that same bravery that saved me and Ruka from Iliaster. You may have lost that duel, but you're probably one of the coolest people I know."

"Thanks," Rua replied with a half smile.

As the trio kept walking, they passed by a pair of thick metal doors with small barred windows near the top. They didn't get far past the second door before hearing a loud pounding coming from the other side.

"Hey!" called a woman's voice from the door's small window. "You three kids! Hang back for a second!"

"Who're you?" Hitomi asked.

"I'm a prisoner here," the woman answered. "The name's Carly Nagisa. I wound up here a few months ago after escaping from Neo Domino when all those robots took over."

"That's sort of what happened to us as well," Hitomi revealed. "There's a bunch of us from Neo Domino who tried taking refuge here, only to be betrayed by the Arcadia Movement."

"Well hey, could you do me a favor?" Carly requested. "Could you go get one of your friends and get them to come and spring me from this cell?"

"I'm afraid we're not quite sure how to get out of this labyrinth, but I might be able to get you out," Hitomi told her. "These doors seem to use electric locks, and I'm pretty skilled at bypassing those."

"Where the heck did you pick up a skill like that?" Rua asked.

"Unfortunately, it's something I had to learn in order to survive in the Commons," Hitomi explained. "Anyway, it might take me awhile because it's so dark down here, but getting you out of this cell shouldn't be a problem."

"Hold on a sec, Hitomi," Rua told her as he gave the cell door a suspicious look. "How do we know this isn't some kind of trap?"

"What the… seriously kid?" Carly exclaimed. "You honestly think I'm with those Arcadia Movement psychos?"

"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't," Rua answered. "The point is we don't know for sure either way."

Carly groaned in frustration. "Okay, how 'bout this? You let me out of here, and I'll show you the way out of this labyrinth. Deal?"

"Seems like an acceptable risk to me," Hitomi decided as she went over to the door. "Rua, you keep a lookout and let me know if anyone comes."

"Well… okay," Rua agreed as Hitomi began working on the lock. "I just hope we don't end up regretting this."

* * *

"For my next move, I summon Idol Girl Sherrill in Attack Mode!" Matsuri announced.

A yellow spotlight came down from above, and appearing with a burst of yellow smoke was a young woman with yellow eyes and blonde hair styled with two large pigtails. She had on a glittering yellow version of the outfits that Ashley and Kelly were wearing.

"When Sherrill is summoned to the field normally, I can special summon another Idol Girl from my hand!" Matsuri announced. "Take the stage, Idol Girl Tanya!"

This time a green spotlight came down from above, and appearing with a burst of light-green smoke was a young woman with green eyes and short light-green hair. She had on a glittering green version of the outfit that the other Idol Girls were wearing.

"When Tanya has been special summoned, I can draw one card," Matsuri announced. "Now I tune the level two Tanya into Ashley, Kelly and Sherrill who are also all level two, for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Tanya winked and struck a pose before changing into two rings made of green light. The rings encircled the other six idols and transformed them into six white stars.

"Ultimate performer of absolute grace and beauty! Take the stage and dazzle the world with your light!" Matsuri chanted. "Synchro Summon! Spotlight! Idol Queen Fantasia!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of white light that expanded outward. After a few moments, the light faded to reveal a young-looking woman with long silky pink hair that went half way down her back and striking violet eyes. Her lips were ruby red, and atop her head was a crown of gold flowers. The end of a golden headset microphone peaked out from beneath her long hair, and she had on a glittering sleeveless pink top with white lapels that showed off her midriff. The rest of her outfit consisted of a short glittering pink skirt, white knee-high boots with pink trim, white elbow-high gloves, and a white cape with an underside that showed a sea of stars.

"When Fantasia has been Synchro Summoned, I can summon as many Idol monsters from my Graveyard as possible!" Matsuri announced. "Idol Girls Ashley, Kelly, Sherrill and Tanya will now retake the stage for an encore performance!"

Fantasia spread her arms outward and a dazzling light flashed from underneath her cape. The ground became covered in a pink mist and the sound of a techno beat once again filled the track. Spotlights came down from above, flashing on and off in different colors. As they did, Matsuri's four original idols rose up out of the ground. Soon after, all five of Matsuri's monsters struck a pose. The mist that had been covering the ground vanished, and Matsuri grabbed an Action Card on the side of the track as she and Shinji took the next corner.

"Holy crap!" Shinji exclaimed. "A monster that summons all of its Synchro Materials back to the field?"

"If you're worried that I'm going to use my lovely Idols for another Synchro Summon this turn, you can relax," Matsuri told him. "Thanks to Tanya's effect, I can only use her for a Synchro Summon once per turn. But, since I just special summoned her again, I can draw another card. Anyway, it actually works out much better for me that all of my Idols are on the field. You may remember that Ashley, Kelly, Sherrill and Tanya gain 500 ATK points for every other Idol monster on the field, which means that each of them now has an ATK of 3000."

"Say what?" Shinji exclaimed.

"That's not all," Matsuri continued. "Fantasia also gains 500 ATK for every other Idol monster on the field besides herself. Which means her ATK goes up from 2000 to 4000. I now use Ashley to squash that giant bug of yours! Star Glamor Shot!"

Ashley pointed her finger at Arbalest as if she was pointing a gun and fired a blast of blue light at the giant wasp. Arbalest was struck in the chest and shattered into particles of gold light. Shinji's life points dropped to 2400.

"When Arbalest has been destroyed, I can special summon another copy of him from my hand!" Shinji announced.

Another giant wasp identical to Arbalest materialized beside Shinji's D-Wheel.

"Also, since I just special summoned a Battlewasp from my hand, I can now special summon the Tuner monster, Battlewasp – Dagger the Soldier!" Shinji announced.

Appearing next to the second Arbalest was another large wasp that was about half of Arbalest's size. The insect was mostly olive-green in color with large red eyes. Atop its head was a pine-green army helmet with a pair of black feelers sticking out the front. Its abdomen was colored with a green and brown camouflage pattern, and its stinger was the grey blade of a large dagger.

"When Dagger the Soldier has been special summoned using his effect, I can reduce the ATK of a monster my opponent controls by 600!" Shinji announced. "I choose Idol Queen Fantasia as the target of Dagger's effect!"

"Not gonna happen! I activate the Action Card, Razzle-Dazzle!" Matsuri announced.

Just as Dagger pointed his stinger at Fantasia several flashes of multicolored light went off in front of his eyes. The soldier wasp waved around through the air as if he were suddenly too dizzy to fly.

"When a monster's effect would be activated, Razzle-Dazzle cancels the activation of that effect and reduces the ATK of that monster by 400 until the end of the turn," Matsuri explained. "Since your new little friend now only has 200 ATK, he's the perfect target for my final attack. Fantasia! Blow Dagger the Solider away and end this!"

"Not so fast! I activate the Trap card, Urgent Tuning!" Shinji announced. "With this card's effect, I now tune the level two Dagger with the level four Arbalest for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Dagger flapped his wings even faster before transforming into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Arbalest and changed him into five white stars.

"Flap your wings and fill the air with the sound of fury, with your spear pierce through that barrier of injustice!" Shinji chanted. "Synchro Summon! Fly, Battlewasp – Javelin the Strike!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of light. After a few moments the light faded to reveal a humanoid wasp with red eyes and a mostly black body. Its arms and legs were colored a golden yellow, and it had thin golden-yellow stripes decorating its abdomen. On the insect warrior's back were two pairs of large transparent wings with a honeycomb pattern, and in its right hand it carried a long silver spear.

"When Javlin the Strike has been Synchro Summoned, he deals 300 points of damage to my opponent for each Battlewasp currently in my Graveyard!" Shinji announced. "Since I have three Battlewasps in my Graveyard right now, you take 900 points of damage!"

"Afraid not!" Matsuri told him as she scooped up another Action Card that was on the side of the track. "I activate another copy of Razzle-Dazzle to negate the activation of Javelin's effect and reduce his ATK by 400!"

Just as Javelin raised his spear to throw at Matsuri, a cluster of multicolored lights flashed right in front of his eyes. The insect warrior nearly dropped his spear and began flying around as if dizzy. Javelin's ATK had fallen from 2600 to 2200.

"And now I've got you right where I want you!" Matsuri declared. "Fantasia! Attack Javelin the Strike! Grand Starlight Sanction!"

Fantasia brought her hands forward and fired an intense blast of multicolored light from her palms at Javelin and Shinji. When the light faded, Javelin was still on the track, but Shinji's life points had fallen to a mere 600.

"Javelin can't be destroyed in battle up to twice per turn," Shinji announced.

"Big deal. All I need to do is attack you just one more time and you'll be history," Matsuri told him.

Suddenly Javelin's wings began to flap faster as they started to glow with a burning crimson light. The buzzing noise coming from those wings became so loud that Matsuri's monsters ended up covering their ears.

"What the… what's going on?" an unsettled Matsuri asked.

"I activated a Continuous Trap, Enraged Battlewasp!" Shinji revealed. "When I've taken battle damage, this Trap allows me to target a Battlewasp monster I control and raise its ATK by the amount of damage I just took! Which means right now, Javelin's ATK is now at 4000!"

"Well now. You're as tough as I hoped you'd be," Matsuri declared with a grin. "That's good, because I wanted to draw this duel out for as long as possible. That way, my victory will be even more dazzling."

"You and your friends in the Arcadia Movement made a huge mistake coming after me and my friends!" Shinji declared. "By the end of this duel, you're gonna get stung!"

* * *

Yugo and Ushio's search for Rin ended up taking them into the vast labyrinth beneath the castle. They had been wandering those bricked halls for what seemed like several minutes and hadn't found a single door that led to another room. The dim lighting of the space didn't make navigating it any easier. Yugo was starting to feel as though they had been going around in circles.

"Dang it! If we had more people with us, we could cover more ground," Ushio remarked. "As it is, this search could take hours, maybe even days."

"We gotta keep looking," Yugo told him. "Who knows what Divine and his goons could be doing to Rin at this very minute?"

Eventually, the two of them turned another corner and found themselves before a large metal door. The door had a small keypad next to it.

"Looks like whatever's in here could be important," Ushio assumed.

"Maybe Rin's behind that door," Yugo suggested.

"Well, there's one sure way to find out," Ushio told him as he went over to the keypad.

"You think you can hack that lock?" Yugo asked.

"Saiga taught me a couple of things about picking electronic locks back the underground," Ushio revealed as he cracked his fingers. "Just relax and leave this to me, kid."

* * *

"I summon the Tuner monster, White Fang – Morgana of the Twilight Pelt in Attack Mode!" Anastasia announced.

Materializing next to Orion was a young-looking woman with tanned skin and long black hair that went halfway down her back. She had on a mask in the form of the head of a white wolf, and red vertical lines were painted on her cheeks. The woman also had on a short-sleeved black shirt with brown leather armor covering her chest, along with a short red skirt and knee-high grey leather boots. Around her waist was a tan belt with a small animal skull for a belt buckle. Hanging from the woman's back was a cape of dirty off-white fur.

"When Morgana has been normal summoned to the field, I can special summon another White Fang monster from the Graveyard with its effects negated and its ATK and DEF reduced to zero," Anastasia announced. "I use Morgana's effect to revive Brutus of the Crushing Avalanche!"

Morgana raised her arms forward and her body began to glow with an eerie scarlet aura. A misty black portal appeared in the air, and Brutus emerged from it onto the battlefield. The muscular warrior's skin had turned chalk-white, and his body had become transparent.

"I tune the level three Morgana of the Twilight Pelt into the level four Brutus of the Crushing Avalanche for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Anastasia announced.

Morgana's body flashed red before changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Brutus and transformed him into four white stars.

"Sinister priestess of the snowy wastes! Appear before us now and bathe this land in your crimson light!" Anastasia chanted. "Synchro Summon! Howl! Alpha White Fang – Desdemona of the Bloody Moon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of crimson light, fading to reveal a woman with long red hair that went half way down her back. She had on a mask in the form of a white wolf's head, along with a red cloth covering the lower half of her face. The rest of her outfit consisted of a short-sleeved red shirt with white armor covering her chest and shoulders, along with a short black skirt with a red and white cloth hanging down the front showing the cross-shaped symbol of a star. Adorning her chest armor was a red mark shaped like a crescent moon, and on her legs was a pair of brown knee-high boots. She had bracelets covered in white fur around her wrists, and hanging from her back was a long tattered white cape. In her right hand, the woman held a twisted wooden staff with a horned animal skull at the top. Fitted into the mouth of the skull was a large red orb.

"When Desdemona has been Synchro Summoned, my opponent takes 300 points of damage for each White Fang monster in my Graveyard," Anastasia announced. "Right now there are four White Fang monsters in my Graveyard, which means you now take 1200 points of damage!"

Desdemona raised her staff into the air as the orb at the top began to shine with a crimson light. Crow began to look around and saw an Action Card sticking out the side of a thin grey leafless tree up ahead. Crow grabbed the card right as Desdemona fired a beam of light from her staff down at him.

"I activate the Action Card, Acceleration!" Crow announced. "This card negates the damage from Desdemona's effect!"

Just as the beam was about to strike, Crow's D-Wheel sped up at the last second and cause the blast to strike the ground behind him. Crow sped past Anastasia with Chidori flying close behind him.

"That will do you no good!" Anastasia declared. "I use Orion to attack Chidori! And when Orion does battle with another monster, he gains 1000 ATK during the Damage Step! Axe of Cruel Frost!"

"At this moment I activate the effect of Kalut the Moon Shadow from my hand!" Crow announced. "By discarding Kalut, I can boost Chidori's ATK by 1400! And since discarding Kalut means putting another Blackwing in the Graveyard, Chidori's ATK also goes up by another 300 points! In other words, Chidori's ATK is boosted to 4400!"

Orion charged across the track and swung his giant axe down at Chidori. The bird warrior blocked the blade of the axe with his sword and punched Orion in the gut with his fist. With the wolf warrior knocked off balance, Chidori stabbed Orion in the chest with his blade. A split second later, Anastasia found an Action Card sticking out of the crack of a large rock by the side of the road and grabbed it.

"I activate the Action Card, Brutality!" Anastasia announced. "This card changes Orion's ATK to a value 100 points higher than Chidori's current ATK during this battle!"

Orion used his free hand to grab Chidori's wrist and forced the bird warrior to pull his sword of out his chest. Chidori's sword was knocked away, and Orion used his axe to cut Chidori in half. The two halves of Crow's monster shattered into particles of gold light, and his life points fell to 400.

"And now Desdemona's other effect activates!" Anastasia announced. "When one of my White Fang monsters destroys another in battle, Desdemona deals that monster's original ATK as damage!"

Desdemona raised her staff back into the air and fired a beam of crimson light down at Crow. Just as the beam was about to hit though, Crow and his D-Wheel became completely shrouded in black flames. When the flames subsided, Chidori had reappeared on the field and Crow's life points had gone up to 1700.

"What's the meaning of this?" Anastasia demanded to know.

"I activated a little Trap called Assault Phoenix Rising," Crow explained. "This card negates the damage from an opponent's card effect, and then lets me special summon an Assault Blackwing monster from my Graveyard in Attack Mode as a level five Tuner. Of course monsters that are summoned with this card have their ATK and DEF cut in half and their effects negated, but I also gain life points equal to half the summoned monster's original ATK."

"Then in that case, I use Desdemona to attack Chidori!" Anastasia announced. "Bloodlust Crimson Moonbeam!"

Crow began to look around for another Action Card as Desdemona powered up her staff again. Up ahead, he saw that the course curved to the right but also branched off into a ramp that went nowhere. There was another ramp on the mountainside directly across, but it was at least several feet away; a distance that no normal D-Wheel could jump. Hovering in the air between the two ramps though was an Action Card contained in a multicolored bubble. Crow sped up his D-Wheel again and drove towards the ramp as Desdemona opened fire. The redhead's motorcycle flew off the end of the ramp, and a split second afterward the large wings on the vehicle's side folded down. The engines on the vehicle's read fired up, and Crow's D-Wheel flew through the air towards the card.

Crow grabbed the floating Action Card just as Desdemona's attack was about to hit. "I activate the Action Card, Miracle! This card prevents Chidori's destruction and cuts the damage to my life points in half!"

The beam from Desdemona's staff struck Chidori in the chest, but the bird warrior survived the attack. Crow's life points meanwhile had only fallen to 1150. Crow landed safely on the other ramp and the wings on the sides of his D-Wheel folded back up. Anastasia caught up to him only a few moments later though after taking the long way around the course.

"You're beginning to annoy me," Anastasia told him.

"Yeah, I kinda have that effect on some people," Crow admitted. "That reputation of yours is well-earned, Stirba. But it's going to take a lot for you to bring me down in this duel."

* * *

Divine was sitting in his office watching several holographic screens showing different parts of the castle. Two of the screens showed Shinji and Crows duels against Matsuri and Anastasia, while another showed Yugo and Ushio trying to break through the mysterious metal door. A fourth screen showed Hitomi trying to break into Carly's cell while Rua continued to keep lookout. Aki was standing to the right side of Divine's chair as he watched the surveillance feeds.

"Our visitors are proving to be quite formidable," Divine remarked. "That girl, Ruka might definitely have a future with us."

"That boy with the dragon, Yugo seems incredibly strong as well," Aki noted.

"Yes, but he could prove to be a problem," Divine told her. "Just like another dragon user who came to us a few months ago."

Divine's eyes turned to another screen in the lower right hand corner. The screen showed the inside of a cell, with the light of the moon streaming in through its barred window. There was a tall man sitting on the cold metal cot of the cell with his arms crossed, though it was too dark to make out any of his features.

"Divine, how come you gave the job of testing those two duelists to Anastasia and Matsuri and not me?" Aki asked.

"Because I have a very special job for you, my dear," Divine answered. "I want you to test the power of our very special guest, Rin Akaba."

Aki looked at the screen showing Rin. The green-haired girl had been unconscious since falling through the trapdoor.

"If I'm right, that girl could have powers that could allow us to finally bring this world to our knees," Divine told her. "To make sure, I want you to push that girl as hard as you can. Hold nothing back."

"Whatever you say, Divine," Aki responded. "As much as I may dislike it, I won't show that girl any mercy."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope that everyone reading enjoyed the first installments of these two duels. One of the nice things about these Action Turbo Duels is that it creates more opportunities for the characters to pull off some amazing stunts, like Crow using the rarely seen flight mode of his D-Wheel. Those of you reading may have also noticed that Shinji had a few new Battlewasp cards in this chapter. It ended up being kind of necessary for me to make some new ones up, since the Battlewasp archetype was sadly not developed all that much (and probably never will be at this point). I also made up at least one new Blackwing support card for Crow in this duel, so it all balances out.

In addition to new Battlewasp cards, I also ended up making some entirely original archetypes for Anastasia and Matsuri to use. I had planned on having them use some existing archetypes from the card game, but could never find any that totally fit their characters. Plus I would've had to do a whole lot of additional research on said archetypes before writing the duels, so to make things easier on myself I made up some brand new ones. Matsuri's Idol monsters were inspired by the Performage monsters used by Dennis in the anime, though they bare vary little resemblance to them. Anastasia's White Fang monsters were originally intended as sort of an anti-Blackwing archetype, sort of like the White Warrior monsters used by Crow's rival Bolton in the 5D's anime.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	12. Warriors of the Commons

**Author's Note:** I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter up. I had hoped to get it posted by the end of last week, but things got kind of busy for me. Well, as they say, better late than never.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 12: Warriors of the Commons

"I shall set one card on the field and end my turn," Anastasia announced.

Crow drew his next card. "Hey Stirba. Tell me something. Just what is it that Divine is after? And why are you helping him?"

"I suppose there is no harm in tell you," Anastasia decided. "The reason I'm helping Master Divine is so that I can help to make this a peaceful world for those like myself with psychic abilities."

"Have you guys really had it that bad?" Crow asked.

"In my case… I was treated like an animal," Anastasia revealed. "The meteor strike that hit Japan back in 2012 may have caused more people to awaken their latent psychic powers, but people with psychic powers have existed for thousands of years. In my homeland, my government began a secret project to train those with psychic powers to use as special soldiers. They tested a number of young children to see if they had psychic potential, mainly orphans like myself. When the government found out that I had abnormally strong psychic abilities, they took me away to their facility and put me through intense training.

"The scientists there at the facility saw me as nothing more than a lab rat, and the soldiers saw me as nothing more than a potential tool. I was never shown a single ounce of compassion by anyone. One day when my powers became strong enough, I broke free from the facility and fled to this country. At the time, Japan was still considered to be a taboo place because of the meteor strike, so it seemed like the ideal place to disappear and start a new like. Of course even here, I was treated as nothing more than an animal wherever I went.

"Then one day I encountered Mistress Aki and Master Divine. They had sought me out for my immense psychic powers, but not because they wanted to exploit them. They saw me as an equal and wished me to help them create a utopia. For the very first time, I felt as I had come to a place where I was truly accepted as a person. That is why I'm going to give everything I have to remake this world."

"Dang. I really get where you're coming from," Crow admitted. "A world where psychics aren't treated as freaks sounds like a really great world, but I think you and your pals are going about it the wrong way. Besides, I think Divine really is trying to exploit you. He seems like the type of guy who tries to exploit everyone."

"Shut up!" Anastasia snapped. "You know nothing of Master Divine! Now begin your turn already!"

Crow sighed and shook his head. "I summon Blackwing – Etesian of Two Swords in Attack Mode!"

Materializing beside Crow's D-Wheel was a humanoid bird with a large yellow beak and a head covered in red feathers. He had black tail feathers and large black feathers covering his shoulders. His lower arms and legs were yellow and ended with talons, and his outfit consisted of a blue shirt with baggy blue pants, and a sort of grey apron. On his back was a long pair of Japanese swords.

"I'm not holding anything back in this duel!" Crow declared. "I tune the level five Chidori into the level three Etesian for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Chidori flashed orange and transformed into five green rings of light. The rings encircled Etesian and changed the bird warrior into three white stars.

"The ebony flames become the wings of resolved home that rise from the ashes of despair!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Soar, Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of black flames. After a few moments, the flames subsided to reveal a large serpentine dragon with a body covered in black feathers and the head of a bird, complete with a yellow beak filled with small white fangs. It had large red and black wings, and on its underside were six orange blade-like legs almost like the legs of an insect. The dragon's tail was made of six large peacock feathers.

Soon after Crow's feathered dragon had appeared, Anastasia found another Action Card sticking out the side of a dead tree and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Avalanche! This card deals 500 points of damage to the opponent for each monster on the field! Because there are currently three monsters out, Avalanche will deal 1500 points of damage! And since you only have 1150 life points left, this card will be your end!"

Suddenly the side of the mountain began to rumble, and in seconds an avalanche of snow and ice began to fall towards Crow. Just as it seemed like the redheaded turbo duelist was about to be buried though, Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon's body became covered in pitch-black flames. The flames expanded outward and falling ice and snow melted to nothing. Crow's life points were totally untouched.

"What… what's the meaning of this?" a stunned Anastasia asked.

"Sorry, but as long as Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon is on the field, neither player can take damage from card effects," Crow explained. "And now, because your Alpha White Fang – Desdemona only has 2400 ATK, it makes her the perfect target for my dragon. Black-Winged Dragon! Attack Desdemona of the Bloody Moon. Ebony Phoenix Flare!"

"I activate my Trap, White Howling!" Anastasia announced. "When a White Fang monster I control is attacked, White Howling switches the attacking monster to Defense Mode and cuts its ATK and DEF in half!"

Just as Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon breathed out a stream of black flames, Desdemona let out a loud howl like that of a wolf. A wave of white light radiated out from the wolf priestess's body and caused the stream of flames to shatter apart. Crow's dragon was hit by the shockwave and was nearly knocked out of the air.

"If that was the best of your abilities, then you're as pathetic a duelist as I thought," Anastasia remarked.

"Aw dang it!" Crow cursed. "Guess I end my turn."

Anastasia calmly drew her next card. "And now Crow Hogan… I shall bury you."

* * *

"I'll just set one card on the field and end my turn," Matsuri announced.

"And because you ended your turn, the effect of Razzle-Dazzle ends and Javelin's ATK rises to 4400!" Shinji announced before drawing his next card. "And now, I use Javelin to attack Idol Queen Fantasia!"

"Sorry, but I'm afraid you can't," Matsuri told him. "As long as I've got other Idol monsters on the field, Fantasia can't be selected as an attack target."

At this, Shinji scowled. "Fine! In that case, Javelin attacks Idol Girl Ashley! Spear Sting Strike!"

Javelin flew across the battlefield and impaled Ashley through the stomach with his silver spear. The slain idol's body slumped forward before shattering into particles of gold light, and Matsuri's body took a slight drop to 2600. Meanwhile, the ATK points of the other Idol monsters on the field dropped by 500.

"When Javelin destroys a monster by battle, he inflicts that monster's original ATK as damage!" Shinji announced.

The insect warrior raised his spear again and flung it towards Matsuri. The pinkette swerved her D-Wheel to avoid getting impaled, causing the spear to strike an empty spot on the road. Despite avoiding the actual attack though, Matsuri's life points still fell to 1600. Javelin then flew forward and pulled the spear out of the ground.

"And now I activate the other effect of Enraged Battlewasp!" Shinji announced. "Up to two times while Enraged Battlewasp is on the field, when the monster affected by the Trap destroys a monster in battle, I can banish another Battlewasp from my Graveyard to destroy another monster my opponent controls! I banish a copy of Arbalest from my Graveyard to destroy Idol Queen Fantasia!"

The red glow from Javelin's wings intensified, and he flew across the battlefield to impale Fantasia in the chest. Before the insect warrior could strike though, Tanya leapt into the path of the attack and was impaled in the chest instead. Tanya's body slumped forward onto the spear before shattering apart into particles of gold light.

"What the…!" a stunned Shinji exclaimed.

"Sorry, but when Fantasia would be destroyed by an opponent's card effect, I can destroy another Idol monster I control instead," Matsuri explained. "It's a shame Tanya's time in the spotlight had to end, but I just couldn't let anything happen to my star performer."

"Fine then! I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Shinji announced. "You may have protected that Synchro Monster of yours, but with the lose of those other two Idols of yours, the ATK points of all your monsters has dropped by 1000."

"Aw, you don't have to be so bitter about how this turn went, Shinji baby," Matsuri told him. "After all, it was impossible for you to take me down from the very beginning. I am going to be the absolute idol of this world once the Movement finally takes it over. No other duelist will be able to compete with me."

"That's why you're helping that bastard, Divine? For fame?" a somewhat outraged Shinji asked.

"And what's wrong with that?" Matsuri asked. "Look, I'm not that crazy about Divine myself, but he's the only way I have to become a star. So I'm willing to do whatever he wants to me to in order to make that dream happen. Now, since you're finally done, it's my turn!" With that, the pinkette drew her next card. "I activate the Spell card, Comeback Performance! This card lets me bring back an Idol Girl monster from my Graveyard, but that monster is destroyed at the end of the turn! Retake the stage, Idol Girl Tanya!"

A green spotlight came down from above, and Tanya reappeared on the track with a puff of green smoke.

"When Tanya is special summoned, I can draw one card," Matsuri continued. "Next I summon Idol Girl Jessica in Attack Mode!"

A purple spotlight came down from above, and appearing with a burst of purple smoke was a young woman with tan skin, purple eyes, and long straight purple hair. She had on a glittering purple outfit that was identical in design to the other Idol Girl monsters.

"When Jessica has been successfully normal summoned, her effect lets me destroy one of my opponent's Spell or Trap cards," Matsuri continued. "And of course the card I choose to destroy is your Enraged Battlewasp card!"

Jessica rocked her hips back and forth and twirled her head around a few times before raising her arms forward and firing two beams of purple light from her index fingers. The beams struck the large representation of Shinji's Trap card and caused it to shatter into particles of gold light. Soon after, the crimson glow faded from Javelin's wings and his ATK fell back to 2600.

"I now tune the level two Tanya into the level two Jessica, Kelly and Sherrill for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Matsuri announced.

Tanya did a little dance before changing into two green rings of light. The rings encircled the other three Idol Girls and transformed them into six white stars.

"Ultimate performer of supreme charm and mystique! Take the stage and dazzle the world with your light!" Matsuri chanted. "Synchro Summon! Spotlight! Idol Queen Monica!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal a young-looking woman with fair skin, a large bust, and long almost glittering blue hair that went half way down her back. Her lips were ruby red, and covering her eyes was a pair of purple visor-like sunglasses. The end of a golden headset microphone could be seen from underneath her long hair. The woman had on a sleeveless glittering burgundy top with large white lapels that showed off her midriff, along with a short glittering purple skirt. The rest of her outfit consisted of a pair of white thigh-high boots, white elbow-high gloves, and a white cape with an underside that showed a sea of stars.

"When Monica has been Synchro Summoned, I can summon as many Idol Girl monsters from my Graveyard as possible," Matsuri announced. "Retake the stage, Tanya, Jessica and Kelly!"

The lights inside the stadium dimmed, and the ground became covered in a pink mist as green, purple and red spotlights came down from above. Kelly, Tanya and Jessica rose out of the ground under their respective colors, doing a little dance as the spotlights flashed on and off. When the three Idol Girl's finished their entrance, all five of Matsuri's monsters struck a dramatic pose.

"Now since I have five Idol monsters on the field, Fantasia and Monica both have an ATK of 4000, while Kelly, Tanya and Jessica all have an ATK of 3000," Matsuri continued. "Plus since Tanya was special summoned, I get to draw a card. Now I activate the Trap card, Entrance Blessing! This card increases my life points by 500 for each Idol monster I just special summoned from the Graveyard. Since I just brought back three Idols, my life points go up by 1500!"

A spotlight came down on Matsuri's D-Wheel, and sparkling gold lights started to rain down upon her. In moments, the pinkette's life points rose up to 3100.

"And now I activate Monica's effect!" Matsuri announced. "Once per turn, Monica can return a monster my opponent controls back to the hand. And of course the monster I choose to hit with this effect is Javelin the Strike!"

At that moment, Shinji found an Action Card on the side of the road and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Razzle-Dazzle! This card negates Monica's effect and lowers her ATK by 400 until the end of the turn!"

"Hah! As if I'd let you make a move like that!" Matsuri told him as she grabbed another Action Card that was on the side of the road. "I activate an Action Card of my own, No Action! This card negates the effect of Razzle-Dazzle and destroys it!"

On cue, the large representation of Shinji's Spell card shattered into particles of gold light.

"Did you really think I would let you use one of my own tricks against me?" Matsuri asked. "I know this Action Field like the back of my hand. I know exactly which Action Cards are on it and where each one of them is. In other words, I can predict whatever Action Card you might grab and know exactly what card I can use to counter it. Now then, I use Monica's effect to send Javelin back to your Extra Deck!"

Monica blew Javelin a kiss, and a blue heart-shaped light flew from her hand across the field. The heart struck Javelin in the head, causing him to blush before vanishing with a flash of blue stars.

"Monica gains the ATK of the monster she returns to the hand with her effect until the end of the turn. Which means her ATK is now at 6600," Matsuri announced. "Monica, attack him directly! Midnight Grand Finale!"

"I activate my Trap, Negate Attack!" Shinji announced. "This card cancels Monica's attack and ends the Battle Phase!"

Monica spread her arms and fired an intense blast of blue light across the battlefield at Shinji. Before the attack could hit, a small vortex appeared in front of Shinji's D-Wheel and sucked the blast in. After a few moments, the light from Monica's attack finally faded and the vortex disappeared.

"Have to admire your persistence," Matsuri admitted. "Still, you'd make it a whole lot easier on yourself if you just gave up now. After all, there's no shame in losing to the world's greatest idol. Play your cards rights, and you'll have an easy life in the new world as my boyfriend."

"You know Matsuri… you really are the kind of person I can't stand," Shinji remarked. "You're nothing more than a sellout, willing to do anything to get to the top. You're worse than Jack Atlas! I'd rather throw myself off a cliff than be the private boy toy of a cheap wannabe celebrity like you."

"How dare you!" Matsuri shot back. "Okay, like I said before, I don't entirely agree with Divine's methods, but I've got no other choice here! When these crazy psychic powers of mine flared up, my family wanted nothing to do with me! They treated me like some kind of freak and threw me out on the street! You have absolutely no idea what it feels like to be treated like a less than human piece of trash, so you can take your lecture and shove it!"

"…You shallow arrogant bitch!" Shinji snapped. "You say I have no idea what it feels like to be treated like trash? I grew up in the Commons! Every day of my life I've been treated like garbage!"

"I, uh…" Matsuri responded, caught off guard by Shinji's reply.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this from someone from the Tops," Shinji continued. "You and your kind have always looked down on people like me! Well now I'm going to give you what you deserve!" With that, he drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Battlewasp Nectar! By banishing a Battlewasp from my Graveyard, I can draw a card for every specially summoned monster my opponent controls! Then, if any of the cards I draw are Battlewasps, I can special summon them to the field! I banish the second copy of Arbalest in my Graveyard to draw five cards!"

The five cards that Shinji pulled from his deck seemed to give off a feint white light as they were drawn.

"I've drawn five Battlewasp monsters, so now I special summon them all to the field!" Shinji announced.

"Seriously?" a stunned Matsuri exclaimed.

"I summon Battlewasp – Sting the Poison, three copies of Battlewasp – Pin the Bullseye, and Battlewasp – Twinbow the Attacker!" Shinji announced.

Five new monsters appeared to fly alongside Shinji's D-Wheel. The first, Sting the Poison, was a large mechanical-looking wasp covered in orange armor. It had two large pinkish wings on its back, and on the front of its head was a single large yellow eye. The insect's neck was black, and a grey metal collar was attached to the armor covering its torso. Its abdomen was a large pink tank with slender orange stripes. The inside of the tank was filled with some sort of liquid. The very end of the metal wasp's abdomen was grey and had a gold stinger.

The three identical monsters that were all known as Pin the Bullseye were small blue missiles, each with a large yellow head on the front. The heads of these missiles all had large blue insect-like eyes, a pair of black feelers, and a long narrow orange stinger on the front like a nose. The back of each missile had a pair of blue transparent wings like those of a wasp. Meanwhile the underside of each of these projectiles had two small black legs. A short stream of yellow jet flames projected out of the back of each missile.

The final monster that Shinji had summoned, Twinbow the Attacker, was another large wasp colored dark-yellow and purple. Its large eyes were purple and it had a pair of yellow wings on its back. The insect's two front legs were short, while its two pairs of hind legs were quite long and slightly bowed. Its abdomen ended with two yellow stingers.

"I activate the effects of all three copies of Pin the Bullseye to inflict 200 points of damage for each one!" Shinji announced.

The three wasp missiles fired the stingers on the front of their heads like darts. New stingers popped out to replace them as soon as they were launched. Meanwhile, the stingers struck the back of Matsuri's D-Wheel and took her life points down to 2500.

"I now tune the level two Sting the Poison into the three level one Pin the Bullseyes and the level three Twinbow the attacker for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Shinji announced.

Sting the Poison flapped its wings even faster before transforming into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Shinji's other three monsters and changed them into six white stars.

"Primeval dragon of revolution! Answer the cries of the people and rise up to smite the arrogant tyrants!" Shinji chanted. "Synchro Summon! Awaken! Assault Wasp Spear Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward, fading a few moments later to reveal a large almost insect-like dragon. Much of its body was blue, with a long neck ending with a brownish-yellow head with two pairs of small dark-grey horns, a long snout and two large dark-blue insect-like eyes. The dragon's mouth was filled with sharp white fangs, and the end of its snout had a long dark-grey metal blade on the very front. The dragon's torso was covered in brownish-yellow armor, and it had large dragonfly-like wings on its back. It had two pairs of long narrow blue arms and two thick double-jointed legs. The dragon's long tail ended with a brownish-yellow wasp abdomen with narrow green stripes and a long curved grey metal stinger.

"What… what the hell kind of dragon is that?" a startled Matsuri asked.

"Spear Dragon gains 400 ATK for each Wind monster currently in my Graveyard!" Shinji announced. "Since I have six Wind monsters in my Graveyard right now, his ATK goes up from 2800 to 5200! Spear Dragon! Attack Idol Girl Jessica! Justice Stinger!"

Spear Dragon flapped his wings rapidly, filling the air with a loud buzzing noise. The insect-like dragon flew across the battlefield and impaled Jessica through the chest with the blade on the end of his snout. Jessica's body slumped forward before shattering into particles of gold light. Meanwhile, Matsuri's life points plummeted to a mere 300.

"Nice shot, but not good enough!" Matsuri declared. "The moment your turn ends, I'll just use Monica's effect to bounce that freaky dragon of yours off the field and finish you off!"

"There isn't going to be a next turn!" Shinji told her. "When Spear Dragon destroys a monster in battle, he deals 500 points of damage for each special summoned monster my opponent controls! Since you have four specially summoned monsters out on the field, you take another 2000 points of damage!"

Spear Dragon opened his jaws and fired a stream of blue flames down at Matsuri. The attack struck the pinkette in the back and dropped her life points to zero. The attack had also knocked Matsuri off of her D-Wheel. With the duel at an end, the monsters that were still on the field vanished and the stadium returned to its original drab grey form. As Shinji brought his D-Wheel to a stop, he saw Matsuri on her knees crying. Suddenly he was overcome with a wave of guilt.

Shinji let out a heavy sigh before dismounting his D-Wheel and walking over to the pinkette. Matsuri noticed Shinji's presence and looked back at him with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"All I wanted… was to become this world's idol so I could show everyone a better way to act," Matsuri told him. "I wanted to use my stardom to make a world where people like me weren't discriminated against. Was that so wrong?"

Shinji put a hand on Matsuri's shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to change the world for the better, but working for someone like Divine isn't the way to go about it. I'm sure if Divine gets his way, it'll people without psychic powers who will be mistreated just like you were. I know that's not the kind of world that you want."

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?" Matsuri asked.

"I don't know," Shinji answered. "But maybe we can find that answer if we work together."

Matsuri gave him a small smile as she wiped away some of her tears with her wrist. "You sure you wouldn't mind working with a shallow bitch from the Tops like me?"

"Hey. After everything that's happened with Iliaster, I've found out that not everyone from the Tops is a bad person," Shinji told her. "I think you and I might end up being a pretty good team."

With that, Shinji held out his hand. After a moment's hesitation, Matsuri took it and Shinji helped her to her feet.

"Well, I suppose the first thing we should do is go find your friends," Matsuri decided. "Your buddy Crow probably has his hands full with Asuka."

"Then let's go get him," Shinji replied. And with that, Matsuri led Shinji out of the stadium.

* * *

"I attack Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon with Orion!" Anastasia announced. "Axe of Cruel Frost!"

Orion lunged across the track and cut Crow's dragon down the middle with his massive axe. The two halves of Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon became frozen in ice and shattered to pieces.

"And now Desdemona's effect activates to deal your dragon's original ATK points as damage!" Anastasia announced. "This is the end!"

Desdemona raised her staff in the air and fired a beam of crimson light from the orb at the top. Before the beam could reach its target though, Crow and his D-Wheel once again became shrouded in pitch-black flames. The flames sucked up the red beam and rose into the air, taking the form of Crow's fallen dragon. At the same time, Crow's life points had risen to 3950.

"What… what's the meaning of this?" a stunned Anastasia asked.

Crow smirked. "When I would take effect damage while Black-Winged Dragon is in the Graveyard, I can negate that damage and summon him back to the field. Then, I gain life points equal to Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon's ATK."

"You're really starting to try my patience!" Anastasia told him.

"That's not all though," Crow continued. "When Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon is summoned from the Graveyard using this effect, all of my opponent's special summoned monsters lose an amount of ATK equal to his own ATK points. Which means both your monsters now lose 2800 ATK!"

Black-Winged Dragon flapped his massive wings and sent a tidal wave of ebony flames across the field, striking Anastasia's two monsters. When the inferno died away, both monsters had turned totally grey and their ATK points had dropped to zero.

"This… this can't be…" a stunned Anastasia spoke.

"Since I'm guessing you're out of moves, I'll just go ahead and make my turn!" Crow decided as he drew his next card. He then saw an Action Card sticking out of a rock on the side of the road and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Ruthlessness! This card allows a monster I control to attack twice during this turn. And of course the monster I choose to use this effect on is Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon! Black-Winged Dragon! Take out both of Stirba's monsters and end this! Ebony Phoenix Flare!"

Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon breathed out a massive blast of black flames that struck both of Anastasia's monsters, causing them to shatter into particles of gold light. Anastasia's life points plummeted from 4000 to zero in an instant. With the duel finally at an end, Crow's dragon vanished and the stadium transformed back into its original drab grey form. Both duelists brought their D-Wheels to a halt.

Crow dismounted and went over to Anastasia. "Hey Stirba, I kinda get why you're helping Divine to create a new world. I don't know what it's like to have psychic powers or anything like that, but I do know what it's like to be treated like you don't matter. Everyone who grew up in the Commons knows what that's like. You can argue with me if you like, but I think that the world Divine is trying to create is not the one you're after, because I'm guessing that the world he wants is on where people without powers who'll be treated like dirt. I think if we work together though, we might have a shot in making a world where everybody's treated right. What do you say?"

Anastasia simply glared at Crow. "I have no interest in joining your cause. However… since you just defeated me, I will help you reunite with your friends."

"That's uh… that's good enough, I guess," Crow replied as he rubbed the back of his head.

* * *

Yugo had been pacing back and forth impatiently as Ushio continued to fiddle with the electronic lock of the large metal door they had found. The security officer had spent several minutes trying to crack the lock and had been having zero success.

"Dang it!" Yugo cursed. "Ushio, how much longer is it gonna take you to open that door?"

"Will you just chill out kid? This sort of thing isn't easy you know!" Ushio told him. "Of course Saiga seemed to make it look easy."

"Well hurry it up! I think Crow might be in trouble inside that room," Yugo told him. "Or at least he was in trouble. I don't know about now."

"Wait, what makes you think that Crow's on the other side of that door?" Ushio asked.

"I don't know… just a feeling, I guess," Yugo answered as he looked at the Clear Wing Synchro Dragon card in his hand.

"Does this have something to do with that magic skin rash of yours?" Ushio asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not a rash!" Yugo snapped. "That doctor said the thing was more like a birthmark. And I don't know if it has anything to do with what I'm feeling or not."

Ushio shrugged and turned his attention back to the lock. Just as he was about to start fiddling with it again, the door opened upwards and Crow walked out with Anastasia.

"Whoa! Hey Ushio," Crow greeted. "From the looks of things, you're no longer a mind control zombie. Glad to have you back."

"Uh, thanks," Ushio responded as he scratched his head.

Yugo meanwhile noticed Anastasia and stormed up to her. "Okay you! Where the hell is Rin? If you won't tell me, I'll duel the answer out of you!"

"Hey Yugo! Take it easy," Crow told him. "My new friend here agreed to help us get back to the others. Besides, Asuka isn't an opponent you can just take on recklessly. Her real name is Anastasia Stirba."

All the color drained from Ushio's face upon hearing the name. "S-Seriously? She's the woman who defeated Sergey Volkov?"

"I don't know who either of those people are," Yugo told them. "Now tell me where Rin is?"

"If I am right, Rin Akaba should be in the central underground stadium," Anastasia answered. "Mistress Aki should be dueling her at this moment to see if she has any psychic powers."

"Wait, Rin is really going to be dueling the Black Rose Witch?" a stunned Ushio asked.

"Yes, and she is perhaps the most powerful duelist in the Movement," Anastasia confirmed. "She was even able to defeat me, so Ms. Akaba's chances are not all that great."

"Well hey, let's not be negative here," Crow interjected. "I mean I just beat you too, so maybe Rin's chances aren't that bad."

"You only won because you got lucky and I underestimate you! So hold your tongue or I'll rip it out!" Anastasia warned.

"Uh, right! What do I know?" Crow responded as he went pale.

Anastasia let out a small sigh and composed herself. "We should probably get to Ms. Akaba as quickly as we can. If Mistress Aki decides to use her full power against her, she may not survive."

* * *

Rin awoke on the floor of a vast dark room and noticed that someone had changed her into her pink and white riding suit. As she sat up, she noticed that her D-Wheel was only just a few feet away.

"Glad you're finally awake," a familiar voice spoke. A spotlight came down a few feet away to reveal Aki sitting atop her D-Wheel. "Now we can finally begin."

"Ms. Aki?" Rin responded as she stood up. "What's going on here?"

"Divine asked me to test you to see if you have any psychic powers like me," Aki explained. "You had better give me everything you've got in this duel, Rin. Otherwise, you'll only get hurt."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed these two duels. The hardest part of writing Crow's duel was figuring out a new version of Black-Winged Dragon. I never got why Crow never got an alternate version of his ace card in the ARC-V anime. The name for this new version of Black-Winged Dragon came together pretty quickly, but the effect was a little bit harder. As for Shinji using a dragon of his own, that had been something I had been debating with myself about since before the beginning of this story. In the end, what made me decide to make a dragon for him was because I couldn't think of a level eight Battlewasp monster he could use to defeat Matsuri.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	13. Curse of the Black Rose

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 13: Curse of the Black Rose

"Ms. Aki, what the heck is all this about?" a confused Rin asked. "What's this about a test?"

"Divine wants to find out if you actually have psychic powers," Aki explained. "To that end, he wanted me to challenge you to a duel to see how you did against me. If you really do have powers like me and everyone else here in the movement, you belong with us."

"So to get to me, you turned all my friends into mind controlled zombies?" Rin asked. "That's no better than what Iliaster did to Neo Domino!"

"Your friends were under the influence of Mortimer's mind control," Aki told her. "I didn't like that they were being used like that any more than you do, but it was necessary. Right now though, it's just you and me."

"Well you and Divine are barking up the wrong tree," Rin told her. "I don't know where you got the idea that I have these powers you're talking about, but I'm just a normal girl."

"Maybe that's what you've always thought, but after what I saw when I rescued you and your friends from Iliaster, I'm certain that you're special," Aki told her. "Your friend, Yugo might be as well, if that mark of his is any indication."

Rin looked at her bracelet, recalling how it had shined during the Battle Royale that Yugo and Aki were both in. Ever since the incident Rin had wondered what the light meant, but she didn't think that it signified that she had any sort of psychic powers like Aki's.

"I'm certain that you have some kind of psychic power, Rin," Aki continued. "And if you really do, then they need to be explored. That's why were going to have a duel down here in this arena."

With that, the lights in the vast room came on to reveal a giant underground racetrack that was colored a drab grey.

"The only way out of this room is to defeat me," Aki told her. "Now, shall we get started?"

Rin sighed and put on her helmet. "Fine! If the only way out of here is to duel you, then let's go!"

With that, Rin mounted her D-Wheel and pulled up next to Aki. The two of them moved their vehicles to the start of the track.

"Action Field on!" Aki called. "Rose Labyrinth!"

In a matter of seconds, the drab metal stadium transformed into a giant garden with hedge walls covered in red roses that were all connected together to form a giant maze. A tan dirt road winded through the maze. An explosion of white light went off in the blue sky above, causing cards to rain down all over the maze. A second after the explosion went off, Rin and Aki sped off into the maze.

Aki ended up taking the first corner of the maze. "My move! First I set two cards on the field. Then I summon Rose Empress Alexandra in Defense Mode!"

Materializing beside Aki's D-Wheel was a young woman with fair skin and long green hair tied into a braided ponytail at the back. A glittering green mask covered the top of the young woman's face, and she had on a low-cut black short-sleeved shirt with a crystal broach pined to the front that resembled a green rose blossom. She also had on black elbow-high gloves with green frills at the top, and hanging around her waist was a short emerald skirt that looked as though it had been made of rose petals. Black stockings covered her legs, and on her feet was a pair of green high-heeled shoes. In her right hand, the young woman carried a dagger decorated with emeralds.

"That ends my turn," Aki announced.

Rin drew her first card. "I summon Windwitch – Cloud Bell in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Rin's D-Wheel was a girl with deep sapphire eyes and long white billowing hair that resembled a cloud. Atop her head was a dark-blue conical had with a wide brim and a large pink bow on the front. She had on a light-green bodysuit that had dark-green trim and an attached short skirt that was open at the front. The girl also had on sapphire rain boots and white gloves, and on the front of her chest was a large pink bow decorated with a blue crystal broach. She was riding on the back of what looked like a blue crystal broom, only had a large gold bell at the end instead of bristles.

"When Cloud Bell has been Normal Summoned, I can summon a Windwitch Tuner monster from my deck!" Rin announced. "I summon Windwitch – Glass Bell!"

Cloud Bell flew a circle around Rin's D-Wheel, and a large puffy white cloud blew out of the bell at the end. The cloud soon broke apart to reveal a girl with short green hair with purple locks that covered her right eye, while green hair covered her other eye. She had on a large blue conical hat with a wide brim and blue and pink bows decorating the front. Her outfit was a white bodysuit that had frilled shoulders, blue trim, and an attached short skirt that was open at the front. She also had on white and blue gloves, and blue shoes. A large pink bow with a blue crystal broach decorated the front of her chest, and on her lower back was a pair of white-feathered wings. The woman was riding a blue crystal broomstick with a colorfully decorated bell at the end instead of broom bristles.

"When Glass Bell is summoned to the field, I can add another Windwitch monster to my hand!" Rin announced. "I now tune the level four Glass Bell into the level two Cloud Bell for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Glass Bell flashed orange and changed into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Cloud Bell and transformed her into two white stars.

"Elemental wind, gather lightning and thunder to become a raging storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level six! Windwitch – Storm Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a massive bolt of lightning that shot across the track, punching a hole through one of the maze walls. The light from the flash soon faded to reveal a large creature that almost resembled a hood ornament from a car. Its upper half resembled a slender woman with chalk-white skin, long dark hair and a dark-grey mask with red eyes that covered her entire face. She had on a large conical hat with a wide brim and a blue band with a silver buckle on the front. The rest of her outfit consisted a dark-grey shirt with long baggy sleeves and a high collar, and a piece of blue armor covering her chest. On the creature's back was a pair of large dark-blue metal wings that crackled with sparks of blue electricity. The monster's lower half meanwhile was a rumbling dark-grey storm cloud.

"I activate Storm Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, Storm Bell lets me destroy up to two of my opponent's Spell or Trap cards! I use Storm Bell's effect to destroy the two cards you set on the field!"

Storm Bell raised her long narrow arms forward and fired bolts of blue lightning from her fingertips. The lightning bolts struck the large representations of Aki's two facedown cards and caused them to shatter apart.

"That's not all!" Rin continued. "When Storm Bell destroys cards using her effect, she deals 400 points of damage for each one! I destroyed two cards, which means you take 800 points of damage from Storm Bell's effect!"

Storm Bell brought her hands together and created a ball of lightning between her palms. As the ball got larger, Aki saw an Action Card sticking out of the hedge wall up ahead on her left. The redhead grabbed the card right as Storm Bell launched her attack.

"I activate the Action Card, Acceleration!" Aki announced. "This card negates the damage from Storm Bell's effect!"

Just at the ball of lightning was about to strike, Aki's D-Wheel sped up and turned down the next corner of the maze. The ball of lightning ended up hitting the empty ground behind Aki's vehicle. Rin turned the corner and quickly sped up to catch up to her opponent.

"Storm Bell! Attack Rose Empress Alexandra!" Rin commanded. "Wrath of Lightning!"

Storm Bell pointed her right hand into the air and fired a small bolt of lightning from her index finger. A second later the sky darkened, and a massive bolt of blue lightning came down from above and vaporized Alexandra. The shockwave from the blast nearly knocked Aki into the wall of the maze, but the redhead quickly recovered and straightened out her D-Wheel. After a few more moments, the sky returned to normal.

"As a duelist, you're not bad," Aki remarked. "But in this fight, it'll take more than what you've just shown me to win."

Rin scowled and examined her hand. She was fairly certain that Aki was going to try and summon her dragon on the next turn to try and move in for the kill. Fortunately, Rin had a couple of cards in her hand that she felt confident could stop that particular move.

"I set two cards on the field and end my turn!" Rin announced.

Aki calmly drew her next card. "Get ready Rin. This is where the real test begins."

* * *

Yugo, Ushio and Crow followed Anastasia thought the dark underground corridors under Castle Arcadia. It seemed like they had been walking for almost half an hour, and Yugo was starting to get very impatient. As the four reached a three-way intersection of the labyrinth, they encountered Shinji and Matsuri coming from the opposite direction.

"Shinji! Boy, am I glad to see you!" Crow declared.

"Same here," Shinji replied.

"So, looks like you lost to your opponent too, huh Asuka?" Matsuri deduced.

"Unfortunately," Anastasia confirmed with a sour look.

"You know, you can drop the whole 'Asuka' thing now," Crow told Matsuri. "We know who Anastasia really is."

"Anastasia?" Matsuri repeated with a raised eyebrow. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"Oh come on. Your friend admitted that she's really Anastasia Stirba," Crow explained.

All the color drained from Matsuri's face upon hearing her friend's real name. "Are… are you serious? Asuka is really the girl who was said to have defeated Sergey Volkov? That lady's supposed to be a psycho!"

"No kidding!" an equally shocked Shinji exclaimed.

"Wait, you really didn't know about this?" Crow asked Matsuri.

"Master Divine and Mistress Aki were the only ones in the Movement who knew my true identity," Anastasia told Crow with a glare. "They knew that most of the other members would be frightened of me if they knew who I really was."

"Oh… whoops," Crow responded. "Sorry 'bout that. But hey! Anastasia here is really an okay person."

"We don't have time for this!" Yugo interrupted. "While you guys are standing around talking, Rin is fighting for her life! Now let's go!"

Anastasia let out a heavy sigh. "Of course. Come this way."

With that, Yugo and the others followed Anastasia down the other corridor. The six of them walked in silence for several moments.

"So Shinji, from the looks of things it looks like you got your little girlfriend to help us," Crow quietly deduced.

"I wouldn't call her my girlfriend, but she is willing to help," Shinji confirmed. "Turns out she's not all that crazy about Divine either. I guess your opponent felt the same way."

"Actually, she still seems pretty devoted to that son of a bitch," Crow told him. "She's only helping us right now because I managed to beat her."

"Hey. Anastasia or whatever your name is," Yugo spoke. "Why the heck is Divine having Aki duel Rin? What's the point of all this anyway?"

"Haven't you been paying attention?" Anastasia asked. "Master Divine wishes to see if your friend has psychic abilities like the ones Matsuri and I possess. He's ordered that all of your friends be tested, including Crow Hogan and Shinji Weber."

"So… since Shinji and I managed to beat you, does that mean we're psychic duelists?" Crow asked.

"Nah. You guys are definitely above average duelists, but you don't have an ounce of psychic power," Matsuri answered. "If you were psychic duelists, the attacks from your monsters would've done a lot more damage to us."

"Our helmets were also equipped with sensors to detect psychic energy from our opponents," Anastasia added. "The meter in my helmet did not go off even once during my duel."

"Neither did mine," Matsuri responded. "Your friend Rin on the other hand might be a whole other story though. Divine and Aki both seem pretty convinced that Rin has powers. It has something to do with a light coming from her bracelet or something like that."

"You talking about that weird thing that happened when Aki saved us from Iliaster?" Crow asked. "If it's because of that, I would've thought Divine would want to test Yugo too. After all, Yugo had that weird glowing mark on his back."

"Master Divine is well aware of Yugo Sakaki's mark," Anastasia informed them. "However, he believes that Yugo may be a threat to us. He never explained why though."

"I don't care about any of that," Yugo told them. "All I care about right now is making sure Rin is okay."

"Then you had better hope that your friend has powers that she can use to defend herself," Anastasia told him. "Otherwise, she may not survive."

* * *

"I activate the Spell card, Seeds of Enchantment!" Aki announced. "By banishing up to three Spell or Trap cards form my Graveyard, I can summon an equal number of Mystic Rose Tokens to the field. I banish Acceleration and the two Trap cards destroyed last turn to summon three Mystic Roses!"

Three large roses appeared in the air beside Aki's D-Wheel. Each rose had bright blue petals that seemed to give off an unearthly light.

"Now I activate the Spell card, Garden of Blessings and draw a card for each Plant Token on the field!" Aki announced. "Next I summon the Tuner monster, Rose Empress Cassandra in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to the roses was a young-looking woman with long wavy blue hair and a glittering blue mask covering the upper half of her face. She had on a low-cut black long-sleeved shirt with frilled blue cuffs. A crystal broach pinned to the front of the chest that resembled a sapphire rose blossom. Her skirt appeared to be made of blue rose petals, and covering her legs was a pair of black thigh-high boots. Tucked under the woman's right arm was a blue large crystal jug that seemed to be made of water.

"I now sacrifice one Mystic Rose Token to summon Rose Empress Alexandra from the Graveyard!" Aki announced.

One of the large roses exploded into a twister of green rose petals. After a few moments the twister subsided to reveal the green-haired Rose Empress.

"When Alexandra is summoned to the field, I can banish one Spell or Trap card my opponent controls!" Aki announced. "Alexandra, remove the card on the left!"

Alexandra threw the jeweled dagger in her hand towards one of the large cards that Rin had laid out on the field. The card was revealed to be a Trap called Lost Wind before it was shattered to pieces.

"Lost Wind. That card could've negated my Black Rose's effect and cut her ATK points in half," Aki observed. "That was a good countermeasure to have against me, but clearly I'm one step ahead of you. I now tune the level three Cassandra into the level four Alexandra for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Cassandra's body flashed orange before transforming into three green rights of light. The rings encircled Alexandra and changed her into four white stars.

"Pitch-dark Flower of chilling flames! Bloom and purify this poisoned land!" Aki chanted. "Synchro Summon! Awaken now, Black Rose Extinction Dragon!"

The stars flashed and burst into an inferno of purple flames. After a few moments, the flames died away to reveal Aki's infamous dragon.

"At this moment I activate the effect of Windwitch – Rain Bell from my hand!" Rin announced. "When my opponent special summons a monster, I can send Rain Bell from my hand or the field to the Graveyard to negate that monster's effects and reduce its ATK by 1000!"

A large dark cloud suddenly formed right above Black Rose. Rain fell from the cloud, and the dragon roared in pain as bolts of blue electricity shocked her body. After a few moments, the rain stopped and the cloud vanished.

"Now you can't use Black Rose's effect to wipe out my field," Rin declared. "And since her ATK points have dropped by 1000, she's no match for my Storm Bell's 2300 ATK."

"Not bad, but quite good enough," Aki told her. "I sacrifice my second Mystic Rose Token to summon Cassandra back to the field!"

Another one of the giant roses shattered apart into a twister of blue rose petals. After a few moments, the twister died away to reveal Cassandra.

"When Cassandra has been special summoned, I can use her effect to change the level of another Plant monster on the field to a level from one to four!" Aki announced. "I change the level of my remaining Mystic Rose Token from level one to level four!"

Cassandra uncorked the crystal jug and poured out the liquid inside. The remaining Mystic Rose absorbed the liquid through its stem and grew to four times its original size.

"I tune the level three Cassandra into the now level four Mystic Rose for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Aki announced.

Cassandra's body once again flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled the giant rose and transformed it into four white stars.

"Pitch-black Flower of the underworld! Blossom now and bring ruin to the living!" Aki chanted. "Synchro Summon! Arise, Rose Goddess Persephone!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of black flames. After a few moments, the flames subsided to reveal the pale masked woman that Aki had summoned when she had saved Rin and the others from Iliaster.

"When Persephone has been Synchro Summoned, she inflicts 200 points of damage for each Rose monster I have out on the field!" Aki announced. "Because I currently control two Rose monsters, you take 400 points of damage!"

On cue, Persephone cracked her whip and a ball of black flames shot from her body up into the air. Just as the ball exploded into a barrage of fiery black petals, Rin found an Action Card sticking out of the hedge wall and grabbed it.

"I activate the Action Card, Acceleration!" Rin announced. "This card negates the damage from Persephone's effect!"

Rin's D-Wheel suddenly accelerated and allowed her to dodge the flaming rose petals. The green-haired girl managed to speed ahead and Aki and took the lead on the track.

"I now activate Persephone's other effect!" Aki announced. "By reducing her ATK to zero, I can double the ATK of another Rose monster I control until the end of the turn! I use this effect to double Black Rose's ATK to 2800!"

Persephone's body gave off a black aura that began to flow into Black Rose. As the aura left her, Persephone's hair turned from black to white. Black Rose meanwhile let out a loud roar as she finished powering up.

"Black Rose! Attack Windwitch – Storm Bell!" Aki commanded. "Black Rose Apocalypse!"

Black Rose opened her jaws and fired a stream of purple flames at Rin's monster. Storm Bell exploded upon being hit, and Rin's life points dropped to 3500.

"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn," Aki announced. "And with the end of my turn, Black Rose's ATK returns to 1400."

With that, the black aura that had been emanating from Black Rose's body faded away to nothing.

"Hold on! If you had used Persephone to attack Storm Bell instead of powering up Black Rose, you could've done a lot more damage," Rin realized.

"I wanted to give you a chance to show me what you can really do," Aki explained.

"Okay, but… it seems like you've left yourself wide open," Rin pointed out.

"If you think I'm that vulnerable, then come at me with everything you've got," Aki told her.

Rin took a breath and drew her next card. "Because I have no monsters on the field, I can special summon Windwitch – Ice Bell!"

Appearing next to Rin's D-Wheel was a young woman with long dark-blue hair, with locks of light-blue and purple hair at the front. Locks of the girl's purple hair covered her right eye, while dark-blue locks covered her left. Atop her head was a large purple conical hat with a wide brim, purple trim and a large pink bow on the side. The young woman's outfit was a lavender bodysuit with a short light-pink skirt and a large pink bow with a round blue crystal decorating her chest. She also had on purple and pink boots, and light-pink bows were tied to her wrists. In the girl's right hand was a blue crystal wand. She was sitting atop a blue crystal broomstick with a multicolored bell at the end in place of broom bristles.

"When Ice Bell is special summoned using her effect, I can special summon another Windwitch monster from my deck!" Rin announced. "I summon another Windwitch – Ice Bell!"

Another young woman identical to Ice Bell materialized on the battlefield. The only difference that Ice Bell's twin had was that her hair was light green instead of blue.

"I now activate the second Ice Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Ice Bell has been summoned to the field, she can inflict 500 points of damage!"

The green-haired Ice Bell fired a bolt of blue light from her wand at Aki. The attack struck the front of Aki's D-Wheel, and her life points fell to 3500.

"Since I have two Wind monsters on the field, I special summon Windwitch – Snow Bell!" Rin announced.

Appearing next to the two Ice Bells was a large ball resembling a Christmas ornament. The sphere was colored ice blue in color and had gold trim. Adoring the front of the ball towards the top were two sapphires shaped like raindrops. On top of the sphere was a sort of gold stem with two large white-feathered wings on the sides and a sapphire orb at the very top. Atop the sapphire crystal was a small gold crown with tiny red gems.

"I tune the level one Snow Bell into my two level three Ice Bells for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Snow Bell flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Rin's other two monsters and transformed them into six white stars.

"Midwinter wind, harness ice and snow and blow a storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level seven, Windwitch – Winter Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a blast of ice and snow, dying away moments later to reveal a metallic-looking creature almost resembling the hood ornament of a car. The upper half of the creature appeared to be feminine, with a blue chest and a white midriff. In place of arms, the creature had a pair of light blue wings. The creature's head had a white face with red eyes, along with a long pointed blue helmet with glowing blue lines decorating it. Its lower half meanwhile was a green sphere with glowing blue lines, and underneath the sphere was a large blue blade that resembled a wing and also had glowing lines.

"I activate Winter Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, Winter Bell lets me target another Windwitch monster in my Graveyard and inflict 200 points of damage times that monster's level! I target Glass Bell to inflict 800 points of damage!"

Winter Bell fired bolts of blue lightning from her eyes that struck the front of Aki's D-Wheel. Aki's vehicle wobbled and her life points fell to 2700.

"I attack Black Rose Extinction Dragon with Winter Bell!" Rin announced. "Winter's Wrath!"

"I activate my Trap, Thorn Lashing!" Aki announced. "When a Rose monster I control is attacked, Thorn Lashing negates that attack and deals damage to my opponent equal to half the attacking monster's attack!"

Winter Bell fired a barrage of icicles across the battlefield at Black Rose. Aki's dragon roared and knocked the icicles away with her thorn-covered tails. One of Black Rose's tails then extended forwards and lashed Rin across the back. Rin cried out as her life points dropped to 2300.

"Surly that isn't all you've got," Aki spoke as Rin tried to catch her breath.

"I… I activate Winter Bell's other effect!" Rin announced. "During either player's Battle Phase, I can target a Windwitch monster on the field and special summon a monster my hand with the same level or less! I target Winter Bell herself and summon Windwitch – Breeze Bell!"

Appearing next to Winter Bell was a young woman with long sky-blue hair that had a lock of green hair covering her right eye. Atop her head she had a large pink conical had with a wide brim and a large green bow decorating the front. Her outfit was a mint-green bodysuit with dark-green trim and a short pink skirt that was open at the front. On the front of the girl's chest was a large pink bow decorated with a round blue crystal. She also had on pink elbow-high gloves and pink shoes. The girl was sitting atop a blue crystal broomstick, with a silver bell at the end in place of bristles. In her right hand, she carried a blue crystal wand with a star at the end.

"I now activate Breeze Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Breeze Bell has been special summoned to the field, I can special summon another Windwitch monster from my Graveyard! I summon Windwitch – Rain Bell!"

Materializing next to Breeze Bell was a large sapphire-colored object resembling a Christmas ornament in the shape of a raindrop. It had gold trim, and a round ice blue gemstone on the front towards the top. At the very top of the object was a sort of gold stem with white-feathered wings on the sides and an ice blue crystal at the very top. Atop this gemstone was a tiny crow decorated with emeralds.

"I activate my Trap card, Urgent Tuning!" Rin announced. "With this card, I tune the level one Rain Bell into the level four Breeze Bell for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Rain Bell flashed orange and transformed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Breeze Bell and changed her into five white stars.

"Early springtime wind, swirl together and become an unstoppable storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level five! Windwitch – Tornado Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a massive light-green twister of wind. After a moment the tornado became smaller, and rising out of the top was the upper half of a woman with chalk-white skin and a light-blue mask with red eyes covering her entire face. She had on a cone-shaped green helmet resembling an upside-down tornado. Green armor covered her chest, along with a dark-blue shirt with long baggy sleeves. On her back was a pair of small grey-feathered wings.

"Tornado Bell is able to make two attacks each turn, and any monster she attacks loses 400 ATK and DEF during the battle!" Rin announced. "Tornado Bell! Attack Persephone! Raging Twister!"

"I activate Persephone's final effect!" Aki announced. "During either player's turn, I can sacrifice Persephone to send all monsters on the field that were special summoned back to the hand! Or in this case, back to the Extra Deck!"

Persephone's body gave off a silver flash before transforming into a massive twister filled with black rose petals. The twister quickly expanded to envelope the entire field and blew away Black Rose and Rin's two Synchro Monsters. When the twister finally subsided, the battlefield was totally bare.

"I'm pretty disappointed in you, Rin," Aki told her. "I was expecting a whole lot more from you, but you've let me down. Now I have no choice but to finish you off."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment of the duel between Rin and Aki. A duel like this is kind of a big deal, so I'm hoping I've done a good job with it so far. This duel actually kind of makes me wish we had seen something like a duel between Serena and Alexis Rhodes in the ARC-V anime. Of course I can think of one thing that might've been better than that. Three words: BRACELET GIRL FIGHTS! And by "fights", I of course mean duels.

So obviously I had to make up a whole bunch of new Windwitch monsters for Rin to use in this story. I decided to try and base some of them on weather conditions rather than just the weather of the winter season. Windwitch - Storm Bell is actually the creation of my friend, Firebolt the Blazing Saint. Cloud Bell, Rain Bell, Breeze Bell and Tornado Bell meanwhile are cards of my own design.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	14. Pendulum of Ages

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 14: Pendulum of Ages

"From the look on your face Rin, it seems that you're out of moves," Aki observed as she calmly drew her next card. "Therefore, I'm going to make my next move. I summon Rose Empress Victoria in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Aki's D-Wheel was the same masked redhead that Aki had summoned at the beginning of her turn when she had fought the security droids.

"Because Victoria was just normal summoned, I use her effect to summon another Rose monster from my hand!" Aki announced. "I summon the Tuner monster, Rose Empress Mary!"

Victoria cracked her thorn-covered whip, and appearing with an explosion of orange rose petals was a young woman with short dark-red hair and a glittering orange mask covering the upper half of her face. She had on a sleeveless low-cut black shirt with orange frills around the shoulders and an orange crystal broach on the front of her chest resembling a rose blossom. Orange elbow-high gloves covered her arms, and around her waist was a short skirt made of orange rose petals. The rest of her outfit consisted of a pair of orange thigh-high high-heeled boots. In her right hand, the young woman carried a dark-red club covered in orange thorns.

"When Mary has been special summoned from the hand, she inflicts 400 points of damage for each Rose monster in my Graveyard!" Aki announced. "Right now, there are three Rose monsters sleeping in my Graveyard, which means you take 1200 points of damage!"

On cue, Mary swung her club downward, and from the end of it shot a bolt of orange lighting. Before the lightning blast could hit its target though, a large puffy white cloud suddenly formed around Rin's D-Wheel. The lightning bolt merely bounced off the cloud and up into the sky.

"What's going on?" Aki asked.

"I activated the effect of Windwitch – Cloud Bell from the Graveyard," Rin explained from inside the cloud. "When I would take damage from a card effect, I can banish Cloud Bell from the Graveyard to negate that damage and draw a card. Then, if the card I draw is a Windwitch monster, I can special summon it." Rin pulled the next card from her deck and smiled. "The card I just drew was Windwitch – Ice Bell! So I summon her to the field in Defense Mode!"

The white cloud shattered apart, and Rin sped out of it with another copy of Ice Bell flying by her side. This version of the Windwitch had light-purple hair with dark-blue locks towards the front.

"I now activate Ice Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Ice Bell is summoned to the field, I can use her effect to inflict 500 points of damage!"

With that, Ice Bell waved her wand and fired a beam of blue light back at Aki. The attack struck the front of Aki's D-Wheel and her life points took a slight drop to 2200.

"Taking a cheap shot like that at me won't do you any good!" Aki declared. "I tune the level three Mary into the level four Victoria for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Mary swung her club and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Victoria and transformed her into four white stars.

"Pitch-dark Flower of chilling flames! Bloom and purify this poisoned land!" the masked woman chanted. "Synchro Summon! Awaken now, Black Rose Extinction Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of violet flames that exploded outward. After a few moments, the flames subsided to reveal Aki's dragon.

"When Black Rose has been Synchro Summoned, she destroys all other cards on the field!" Aki announced.

Black Rose roared and her body gave off a blinding purple flash that washed out the entire battlefield. When the light finally faded, Rin's monster was gone. The hedge maze of roses was still there, but only because Action Fields like the maze couldn't be destroyed by a card effect.

"Because her first effect was used, I can use Black Rose to summon a Genesis Rose Token for each specially summoned monster that was destroyed," Aki announced. "The only other monster out on the field at the time was Ice Bell, so I special summon one Genesis Rose to my field."

Appearing next to Black Rose was a large red rose with an odd white stem. The blossom of the rose glowed with a peculiar golden light.

"Black Rose! Attack Rin directly and end this!" Aki ordered. "Black Rose Apocalypse!"

Just as Black Rose opened her jaws to fire, Rin found an Action Card sticking out of the hedge wall on her left and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This card cancels your monster's attack!"

Black Rose spewed out a stream of purple flames down at Rin. At the last moment though, Rin swerved her D-Wheel to the right and avoided the attack. Afterwards, Aki drove up to ride alongside her.

"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn," Aki announced. "You've done a good job avoiding my attacks, but it's going to take more than that to beat me. The only way you're going to defeat me is to you tap into that power that's hidden inside you."

"I hate burst your bubble, but I don't have these powers that you and Divine seem convinced that I have!" Rin told her.

"Then that's just too bad," Aki coldly responded. "Because without those powers, you don't stand a chance."

With that, Aki sped on ahead, leaving Rin in her dust. Rin knew that the next turn was probably going to be her last.

* * *

Yugo and the others eventually arrived at a small metal door at the end of one of the corridors. Anastasia pressed a few of the buttons on the keypad next to the door, and it opened up. One the other side was a small dark room with a set of windows on the far wall. The group went up to the windows and saw Rin and Aki's duel taking place down below.

"This is an observation lounge for the central stadium," Anastasia informed the others. "We can watch what's left of Mistress Aki's duel from here."

"What the… hey! I wanted to stop this damn duel, not watch it!" Yugo protested.

"Yeah, well I'm afraid you're pretty much out of luck there," Matsuri told him. "That door on the left there does lead to an elevator that'll take us into the stadium, but it can't be used while a duel is in progress. It's kind of a safety feature more than anything else. Our duels tend to get a little… messy."

"We can see and hear everything happening in the duel, but that is all," Anastasia informed them.

"So all we can do is just stand here and watch Rin get creamed?" a somewhat outraged Crow asked.

"Unfortunately for you, yes," Anastasia answered. "Of course it looks like we won't be watching for long. Mistress Aki has summoned her dragon. It will not be much longer before your friend is eliminated."

* * *

Rin drew her next card. "I activate the Spell card, Spellbooks from the Pot! This card lets us both draw three more cards from our decks!"

"You must be getting desperate," Aki remarked as she drew three more cards from her deck. "But no matter what you draw, you're not going to get anywhere until you tap into your true powers."

"When is it going to sink in that I don't have these powers you keep talking about?" Rin insisted.

"Rin, what happened during that Battle Royale when your bracelet shined is a sign of what you're capable of," Aki told her. "You just need to tap into it."

"And if I can't?" Rin asked.

Aki gave her a cold stare. "Then I will have no choice but to show you no mercy."

Rin took a big as her trembling hand reached for her deck. She could tell that Aki was serious about not showing any mercy. It didn't seem like Aki enjoyed the idea of tearing her to shreds, but Rin knew that there was no hesitation in the redhead's eyes. Just as Rin was about to pull the top cards from her deck, the gemstone on her bracelet suddenly began to shine. Soon after, there was a blinding explosion of green light.

* * *

 _Rin found that she was suddenly floating in an endless sea of stars. In the distance at least several feet away, she saw a massive brown object that almost resembled an old clay top. The underside of the object had a spiraling path around it showed what almost appeared to be the remains of ancient buildings. Meanwhile on the flat top of the object was a large and ancient-looking city. Somehow the object seemed familiar to Rin, but she had no idea why. All she knew was that it seemed like she had some kind of connection to the object, almost as if it was calling out tot her. In a way, Rin felt almost as though she had come home._

 _Suddenly appearing in front of the green-haired girl was the transparent image of a man who seemed to be in his late thirties or early forties. He was bald and had tan skin. His right eye was violet, while covering his left eye was a strange grey eyepiece with an infinity symbol on it. The eyepiece extended back to cover his left ear, and was attached to a round black metal plate with chrome trim on the side of the man's head. The man had on a long white coat under a piece of silver chest armor with a black vertical infinity symbol on the front, along with black gloves, long black pants and brown boots. Rin recognized the man instantly from a picture she had looked at more than once growing up. The man before her looked very different from his photo, but Rin knew without a doubt that she was looking at her father, Leo Akaba._

 _Leo extended one of his hands to Rin, showing her an odd crystal pendulum. With a slight twitch of his wrist, the pendulum began to swing back and forth._

 _"Rin, this pendulum is the lost power of our ancestors," Leo spoke. "It is a power that is yours to take. Use it, and show that pathetic witch the true power of our bloodline."_

 _Rin watched for a few moments as the pendulum continued to swing back and forth. After a moment, she final took hold of it. Soon after, her bracelet gave off another blinding flash of green light._

* * *

Rin was back in the duel, and her orange eyes were glowing with an eerie light. Her bracelet continued to shine as she finally pulled the top three cards from her deck, causing them to flash with an odd green light.

"Using the Scale 1 Windwitch – South Polar Bell and the Scale 10 Windwitch – North Polar Bell, I now set the Pendulum Scale!" Rin announced.

With that, Rin placed two odd-looking monster cards at the far ends of the duel disk blade of her D-Wheel. The blade seemed to spark as multicolored letters in a strange alien writing flashed across. After a moment though, the blade stopped sparking and the alien writing changed into the word, "Pendulum". Soon after, two transparent tubes made of an ethereal blue light appeared to the left and right of Rin's D-Wheel. Each tube contained a monster.

The monster on Rin's left, North Polar Bell, was a young woman with green eyes and long silver hair with a lock of blue at the front that covered her left eye. Atop her head was a red Santa hat with a gold bell at the end. Her outfit was a red bodysuit with white lines running down the sides of the arms and legs, and an attached short skirt with furry white trim that was open at the front. On the front of the young woman's chest was a large green ribbon with a round blue crystal broach attached. She also had on black boots and mittens with furry white trim, and around her waist was a black belt with a golden buckle. In the girl's left hand was a blue crystal broomstick with a golden bell at the end instead of bristles. Meanwhile in her right hand was a blue crystal wand.

The monster contained in the tube on Rin's right, South Polar Bell, was a young woman who was North Polar Bell's twin. She had red eyes, and long golden hair with a lock of green at the front that covered her right eye. The Santa hat atop the girl's head was blue and had a silver bell at the end. Her outfit was a blue bodysuit with white lines running down the sides of the arms and legs, and an attached short skirt with furry white trim that was open at the front. Covering her chest was a large red ribbon with a round blue crystal broach attached. Like North Polar Bell, the girl had on black mittens and boots with furry white trim, and around her waist was a black belt with a silver buckle. In the girl's left hand was a blue crystal broomstick with a silver bell at the end in place of bristles. Meanwhile in her right hand was a blue crystal wand.

"Uh… Yugo? What the hell are we looking at here?" Crow asked up in the observation lounge.

"Why the heck are you asking me?" Yugo responded.

"Well you know Rin's deck better than any of us," Crow explained. "Haven't you seen her use cards like this before?"

"Well… I've seen those two monsters before in Rin's deck, but she's never used them like that before," Yugo answered. "They were just a couple of ordinary Tuner monsters."

"I've never seen Tuner monsters that can be used like that before," Ushio interjected. "Something really weird is going on down there."

"This certainly is an interesting move you've just pulled, Rin," Aki spoke down in the duel. "But this isn't quite what I had in mind what I told you to tap into that power you've been hiding."

"Be silent, peasant!" Rin snapped in an echoing voice. "A commoner like you could never hope to understand this power! You dared me to show you what I'm capable of, and now you shall find out! With the Pendulum Scale set at one and ten, I can simultaneously summon monsters from level two to nine!"

At that moment, a giant orange number one written in an alien writing appeared underneath South Polar Bell inside her tube. Meanwhile, an orange number ten in the same alien writing appeared beneath North Polar Bell. Soon after, a gigantic crystal pendulum appeared in the sky and began to draw a circle of light.

"Swing! Pendulum of ages! Draw and arc of light across the heavens!" Rin chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle being drawn by the giant pendulum suddenly turned into a hole of blue light. A ball of light-blue light flew down out of the portal, followed by a ball of green light.

"Elegant witch of the sturdy chime!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Tin Bell!"

The monster that appeared from the ball of blue light, Tin Bell, was a girl with pale blue eyes and straight silver hair in a braided ponytail, with a lock of green hair at the front that covered her left eye. She had on a dark-grey conical hat with pointed backward, with a wide brim and a large pink bow on the front. Her outfit was a dark-grey bodysuit with white trim and an attached short skirt that was open at the front, along with pink gloves and a pair of pink high-heeled shoes. Covering her chest was a large pink bow with a round blue crystal broach on the front. The girl was riding a blue crystal broomstick with a silver bell at the end.

"Witch of the early winter chill!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Frost Bell!"

Appearing from the other ball of light was a young woman with purple eyes and long light-blue hair, with a lock of green hair at the front that covered her right eye. She had on a large blue conical hat with a wide brim, a large mint-green bow decorating the front, and a layer of ice covering the top. She had on a mint-green bodysuit with dark-blue trim, and an attached short skirt that was open at the front, along with blue gloves and shoes covered in a layer of frost. On the front of her chest was a large pink bow with a round blue crystal broach attached to the front. The young woman was sitting atop a blue crystal broomstick with a gold bell at the end.

"What kind of summoning method was that?" Shinji asked up in the observation lounge. "I've never heard of a Pendulum Summon before."

"This is news to me too," Matsuri responded. "Did Divine and Aki know about this?"

"Hey Yugo, did you know about that Frost Bell monster of Rin's too?" Crow asked.

"No. That one is totally new to me," Yugo answered. "What the heck's going on?"

"I now activate Frost Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Frost Bell has been special summoned, she deals 500 points of damage for each card in my Pendulum Zones! Since I have North Polar Bell and South Polar Bell in both my Pendulum Zones, you take 1000 points of damage!"

On cue, a ball of snow and ice began to swirl together in Frost Bell's right hand. At that moment, Aki found another Action Card sticking out of the hedge wall and grabbed it.

"I play the Action Card, Damage Inverse!" Aki announced. "This card negates the damage from Frost Bell's effect and increases my life points by an equal amount!"

Frost Bell threw the ball of ice and snow across the battlefield towards Aki. Instead of hitting Aki though, the projectile hit a wall of golden light that vanished as soon as it appeared. The ball shattered in impact and turned into particles of gold light that flowed into Aki's D-Wheel, raising her life points to 3200.

"I activate the effect of Windwitch – Storm Bell from the Graveyard!" Rin announced. "Because I control a Windwitch Tuner, I can summon Storm Bell back to the field!"

A dark storm cloud appeared in the air above Rin's D-Wheel. Storm Bell descended from the cloud and joined Rin's other two monsters.

"I now activate South Polar Bell's Pendulum effect!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, South Polar Bell lets me change the level of a Windwitch Tuner I control to a level from one to six. I use this effect to change Tin Bell's level to one!"

South Polar Bell waved her wand and fired a beam of blue light from it down at Tin Bell. The silver-haired witch was hit in the shoulder by the beam and her level dropped from three to one.

"You wanted me to unleash my power, and now you'll get more than you bargained for!" Rin declared. "I tune the now level one Tin Bell into the level three Frost Bell and the level six Storm Bell for a level ten Synchro Summon!"

Tin Bell's body flashed orange and became a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Rin's other two monsters and changed them into nine white stars.

"Raging primal wind, gather all your power here and now and become the storm of the century!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level ten! Windwitch – Hurricane Bell!"

The stars flashed and became an immense twister of wind that shot high into the sky. At the same time, the sky above the battlefield darkened and rumbled with thunder. The tornado continued to expand outward and eventually broke apart to reveal a gigantic monster. The lower half of the creature was a gigantic black bell, while the upper half appeared to be a female figure with dark-blue armor covering the chest and a large yellow cat-like eye on the front of a white stomach. She had large grey-feathered wings in place of arms, and her face was covered completely by a white mask with red eyes. Atop her head was a two-pointed hat with a black bell on each tip that was like the hat of a court jester. The right point of the hat was colored blue, while the left point was dark-grey.

"Holy crap!" Ushio exclaimed. "That is one giant Synchro Monster!"

"Yugo? Did you know that Rin had a monster with 3200 ATK?" Crow asked.

"Yeah, I knew about Hurricane Bell," Yugo revealed. "Rin doesn't use it much partly because it needs two non-Tuner monsters to be summoned."

"When Hurricane Bell has been Synchro Summoned, she destroys all other monsters on the field and deals 600 points of damage for each one!" Rin announced. "Right now you have two monsters on the field, so you'll take 1200 points of damage!"

The giant bell that was Hurricane Bell's lower half began to ring with deep hard chimes almost like those of a gong. The sky became even darker and a powerful wind picked up. A hard rain started to come down and the wind continued to intensify. The force of the gales got so strong that the broke the windows of the observation lounge. Fortunately, Yugo and the others somehow avoided getting hurt by the flying shards of glass.

"This is nuts!" Crow exclaimed.

"You don't know the half of it!" Matsuri told him. "That glass is supposed to be able to withstand even the strongest hit by psychically enhanced solid vision! That girl Rin is just way too powerful!"

"Mistress Aki," a concerned Anastasia spoke.

Down on the battlefield, the wind kept getting stronger and was blowing the rose blossoms off of the hedges. An Action Card flew past and Aki managed to grab hold of it.

"I activate the Action Card, Acceleration!" Aki announced. As soon as a large version of the card appeared though, it instantly shattered to pieces. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Spell and Trap cards can't be activated in response to Hurricane Bell's effect," Rin explained. "Nothing you do can protect you from this storm!"

Black Rose and the Genesis Rose Token that Aki had on the field were both finally blown away by the winds and shattered to pieces as they faded into the distance. Hurricane Bell then fired a massive bolt of blue lightning from the eye on her stomach and struck Aki in the back. Aki cried out in pain as the electric shock took her life points down to 2000.

"At this point, the Pendulum Effect of North Polar Bell activates!" Rin announced. "When my opponent takes damage from the effect of a Windwitch monster, I gain life points equal to the damage inflicted."

North Polar Bell waved her wand and particles of light almost like snow rained down upon Rin. The green-haired girl's life points rose up to 3500.

"And now… Hurricane Bell, attack her directly!" Rin commanded. "Nature's Wrath!"

"I… I activate a Trap, Mirror Force!" Aki announced. But as she used her trembling hand to hit the button that would activate the card, nothing happened. "What?"

"When a Synchro Monster that was summoned using Tin Bell attacks, my opponent can't activate Spell or Trap cards until the end of the Damage Step," Rin revealed.

The wind suddenly formed a twister around Aki and her D-Wheel was lifted high into the air. Hurricane Bell fired another bolt of lightning from the eye on her stomach that struck Aki. The redhead cried out in pain as her life points plummeted to zero. Hurricane Bell fired yet another lightning bolt and Aki was knocked out. With the duel at an end, the powerful winds died away and an unconscious Aki fell away from her D-Wheel and started to plunge towards the ground. Meanwhile, Hurricane Bell vanished and the stadium returned to its original drab grey appearance. On the ground, Rin's D-Wheel came to a halt and she passed out.

Inside the observation lounge, Anastasia activated her duel disk and drew a card. "Appear! White Fang – Brutus of the Crushing Avalanche!"

Brutus materialized inside the lounge and jumped out the broken window at the command of Anastasia's thoughts. The wolf warrior caught Aki in midair and landed on the stadium floor with both feet. Brutus gently placed Aki on the ground before vanishing. Aki's D-Wheel meanwhile crashed to the stadium floor a few feet away. The motorcycle was greatly damaged but miraculously failed to burst into flames.

Back up in the lounge, Anastasia opened the elevator door. Yugo was the first to rush into the elevator, followed closely by Anastasia. Crow and the others managed to slip in before the door shut. Moments later, the elevator had taken the group down to the floor of the stadium. Yugo rushed out towards Rin while the others went to look after Aki.

Yugo found Rin still unconscious and lying next to her D-Wheel. As he kneeled down to pick her up, he noticed that some of Rin's cards had fallen to the ground. Three of the cards were North Polar Bell, South Polar Bell and Frost Bell. Yugo immediately noticed that all three cards were like nothing he had seen before. The top half of the cards' frames was orange like a regular effect monster card, while the bottom half was green like a Spell card. Each card also had an extra box containing more effect text, along with blue and red markings with numbers on each side.

"What the hell is going on here?" Yugo whispered. "Rin, what happened to you?"

* * *

Hitomi had been trying to pick the lock to Carly's cell for what had seemed like an eternity, and was having absolutely no success. Ruka had since woken up and was standing against the wall with Rua. As the twins continued to watch Hitomi work, Rua was going more and more impatient.

"Ya know, I'm starting to wonder if it's really worth the trouble to bust this lady out of her cell," Rua spoke.

"Hey! If you kids want to find a way out of this labyrinth, I'm your only shot!" Carly told them.

"Hitomi, are you positive that you can break that lock?" Ruka asked.

"Well I thought I could," Hitomi answered. "This is actually a little more advanced than the locks I'm used to dealing with."

At that moment, the trio suddenly heard footsteps coming out the darkened corridor and became totally alert. Hitomi and the twins watched tensely as the footsteps came ever closer. Soon enough, the approaching party was revealed to be Saiga, Izzy and Sid.

"Oh great!" Rua exclaimed. "Now the mind control zombies that were once our friends have found us!"

"Chill out kid," Izzy told him. "We're ourselves again."

"Yeah? How do we know you aren't trying to trick us?" a suspicious Rua asked.

"Rua, relax," Ruka told him as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Mortimer was the one who was controlling everyone. Now that he's out of commission, everyone should've snapped out of his spell."

"At long last! Some adults," Carly observed from insider her cell. "Maybe one of you three will have more of a shot at busting me out of here."

"Who the heck was that?" Sid asked.

"Not really sure," Rua answered. "She said her name was Carly and that she's been a prisoner here for months, but I kinda think she might be trying to trick us."

"We've been helping her because she offered to show us a way out of this dungeon," Ruka added.

"Well you kids don't need to worry about that," Sid told them. "We can lead you out of here no problem."

"You sure about that man? Because we got lost like three our four times wandering around down here," Izzy pointed out. "If this lady can help get us out of her, I say we bust her out."

"Hey! Like the kid said, this Carly woman could be a trap of some kind," Sid argued. "Besides, we don't need her to get out of this damn basement. My navigation skills are top notch!"

"Oh for god sake! Are all of you people total idiots?" Carly snapped. She then took a deep breath to compose herself. "Look, I'm sorry about losing my temper just now. I have been cooped up in this room for what seems like an eternity. Can you blame me for being crabby? Now the fact is, I am your best shot at getting out of this place. So will you help me or not?"

Saiga let out a heavy sigh. "Oh, what the hell? Move aside Hitomi. I've got this."

Hitomi moved away from the lock, allowing Saiga to go over and tinker with it. After a few seconds, the heavy metal door to Carly's cell slid open. It was then that the group was able to get a good look at the prisoner. Carly was slightly short and had long straight dark hair. A pair of large round black glasses with trifocal lenses covered her eyes. Her outfit was a blue striped shirt with an orange vest, blue jeans and red sneakers.

"Oh thank god!" Carly exclaimed. "I was starting to think I would never get out of there."

"We held up our end of the deal," Saiga told her. "Now which was is the way out?"

"In a minute. First I need you to unlock the cell next to mine," Carly responded.

"Are you freaking serious?" Sid exclaimed. "Why the hell should we?"

"Listen you! The man in that cell is very important to me!" Carly told him. "And, he might be our best shot at beating these psychic freaks!"

"Yeah? Well if your buddy in the other cell is that strong, how is it he was locked up?" Sid asked.

"Because when we got here, he was hurt," Carly explained. "It took him a while to recover from his wounds, but now he's at a hundred percent. Now let him out of there!"

"Saiga? What do you think we should do?" Izzy asked.

"What have we got to lose?" Saiga responded as he went over to the other cell door.

After a few more seconds, Saiga finished picking the lock and the other cell door slid open. The person who walked out of the cell caused the jaws of both Saiga and Izzy to drop. Sid took off the aviator sunglasses that were part of his uniform to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Even Ruka and Hitomi were noticeably stunned by the appearance of the prisoner.

Rua's eyes totally lit up on seeing the identity of Carly's friend. "This just became the greatest night of my life."

* * *

Rin slowly woke up to find Yugo looking down at her. A worried smile was on the young turbo duelist's face.

"Rin! Thank god you're awake," Yugo spoke. "You really had me worried."

Slowly, Rin sat up and found that she was lying on the floor of the stadium where she had dueled Aki. Crow and Ushio were standing not far away. Meanwhile, Shinji, Matsuri and Anastasia were busy tending to Aki, who seemed to be wide-awake.

"What the heck happened?" Rin asked.

"You passed out after beating Aki in that duel," Crow explained. "You've actually been out for about half an hour."

Rin tried to recall the ending to her duel with Aki. Parts of it were hazy, but she remembered playing the Pendulum Monster cards and summoning Hurricane Bell for the final attack. The green-haired girl also recalled the vision of her father and that strange object floating in space.

"Rin, just what the heck were those weird cards you played during that duel?" Yugo asked. "I've never seen anything like them before."

"Those cards, Mr. Sakaki, are the proof of your dear friend's true power!" a familiar voice interrupted.

Yugo and the others looked to see Divine rising out of a hidden hatch in the stadium floor. He had on an ugly green and brown riding suit, and a green helmet was tucked under his arm. Next to the psychic was a green D-Wheel.

"So! You finally had the guts to come out and face us yourself, huh?" Crow observed. "What the hell do you know about those weird cards Rin used to beat Aki?"

"I suppose it's only fair that you all know the truth," Divine decided. "Not just about Ms. Akaba, but about all of us psychic duelists. The reason that those of us in the Arcadia Movement are gifted with psychic abilities because we are descended from those not of this world! We carry the blood of the people who came here from the stars! The Anunnaki!"

"The what now?" Ushio asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold up!" Crow spoke. "Are you saying that you guys are some kind of space aliens?"

"A simplistic way to put it, but yes," Divine answered. "Actually, we are merely descended from aliens who came here thousands of years ago and mingled with the human race. And after what I've seen in this duel tonight, there's no doubt in my mind that Rin Akaba is also descended from those same glorious beings!"

"You're saying that you think I'm part alien?" a stunned Rin asked.

"Exactly, but you are no mere descendant like the rest of us, Rin Akaba!" Divine declared. "You are of royal blood! And it is your power that will lead the Arcadia Movement into a new and glorious age!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm sure that many of you reading were probably surprised by how the second half of Rin and Aki's duel unfolded. Before anyone calls me out about breaking my little rule about only Synchro Monsters showing up in this story, you might recall that I only said that we wouldn't be seeing any Fusion or Xyz Monsters showing up. I _never_ said anything about there not being any Pendulum Monsters. Of course Pendulum Monsters have a much different origin in this story than they did in the anime, one that's out of this world. Some of you might be a bit weirded out by the whole alien thing that Divine dropped at the end of this chapter, but you have to admit that it's more down to earth than the stuff that the anime did.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	15. The King Unchained

**Important Author's Note:** I wound up getting an error message when I posted the last chapter a few days ago. Chapter 14 appeared on the site, but for some reason it wasn't registered as an update and no email was sent out to the stories followers (at least not as far as I know). So in case anyone missed it, the conclusion to Rin and Aki's duel is in the previous chapter. I don't know if I'll be getting the same problem with the site when I post this chapter, but I guess I'll find out.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 15: The King Unchained

"You're so full of crap, Divine!" Yugo declared. "You honestly expect us to believe that Rin is some kind of alien? That's nothing but a load of bull!"

"I understand your skepticism. It is an outlandish story after all," Divine admitted. "But what I'm telling you is the truth. Your dear friend, Rin, myself, Aki, Matsuri, our dear Anastasia… everyone in the Arcadia Movement is descended from the Anunnaki."

"Not that I'm buying any of this garbage, but just what the heck are these Anunnaki you keep talking about?" Crow asked.

"The Annunnaki were a race of beings who came here to Earth thousands of years ago from the tenth planet in our solar system, Nibiru," Divine explained.

"Hold the phone!" Shinji interrupted. "There are only nine planets in our solar system!"

"Actually there are just eight planets," Ushio corrected.

"Oh just shove it, Ushio!" Shinji shot back. "You know I've never bought all that crap about Pluto not being a real planet!"

"Nobody from the Commons does," Crow added.

At that moment, Divine loudly cleared his throat. "Anyway, the reason the Anunnaki came to Earth was because of massive changes to their planet's environment. They realized that their world was dying. The core of Nibiru had become unstable. The finest minds among the Anunnaki realized that in only a few short years the planet's surface would be totally uninhabitable, and that in a few more thousand years the planet would explode. In fact that is exactly what happened. The meteors that decimated Japan back in 2012 were in fact fragments of Nibiru.

"Knowing that their world was coming to an end, the Anunnaki built a colony ship and came here to Earth to rebuild their society. The primitive humans the Anunnaki encountered saw them as gods. They built temples to them and even offered up their women as a sign of their devotion. All psychic duelists are the product of the union between the Anunnaki and these women."

"If these aliens you're talking about were so big, why aren't they around?" Ushio asked.

"Unfortunately, not every member of the human race saw the Anunnaki as gods," Divine revealed. "The Anunnaki wished to turn this world into a paradise, but a band of rebels led by a barbarian king rose up to overthrow them. Despite their incredible power and advanced technology, the Anunnaki were sadly wiped up."

"I'm not buying any of this!" Yugo declared. "I don't know how you came up with this whole sci-fi story of yours, but you're nuts if you think we're actually going to believe it!"

"Divine, just how do you know all of this stuff about these aliens anyway?" Rin asked.

"Through this," Divne answered as he pressed the button of a watch-like device on his wrist.

Suddenly appearing in the air above the group was the large hologram of a brown stone tablet. The tablet was inscribed with some kind of ancient writing, and carved in the center of the tablet was a top-like object that Rin recognized as the object from the vision she had experienced during the duel.

"This tablet tells of the history of the Anunnaki and their time here on Earth," Divine revealed. "The object pictured in the center is their colony ship, Aerial Fortress Seibal. I discovered this many years ago during my initial research into psychic power. Through this tablet and other sources I was able to determine that all psychic duelists are descended from this mighty beings."

"Yeah? How do we know you didn't just carve that thing yourself?" Crow asked.

"Again, you skepticism is understandable," Divine admitted. "But there is other proof that I'm telling you the truth. The Pendulum Monsters that Rin used in her duel are such an example! When the Anunnaki came to Earth, they quickly discovered the magical ceremonies conducted by ancient humans that were the inspiration for Duel Monsters, and even dabbled in the rites themselves. The members of the Anunnaki's royal line were even able to use their power to create another kind of summoning method, the Pendulum Summon.

"Unfortunately, this summoning method was lost to the sands of time along with the Anunnaki themselves. Interestingly enough, Pendulum Monsters came into being around the same time as Synchro Monsters. The barbarian king who led the rebellion against the Anunnaki had created the first Synchro Monster in order to fight the Anunnaki, and his followers used the same power. You know it was actually a twist of fate that caused Maxemillion Pegasus to discover Synchro Monsters in the first place. On a flight back from Egypt while doing his original research for Duel Monsters, the plane he was on had been diverted to South America. During his unexpected stay, Pegasus had decided to take in the sights and ended up discovering a temple housing stone tablets showing the very first Synchro Monsters.

"Legend has it that Pegasus was so astounded by the discovery of Synchro Monsters that he had abandoned another type of summoning method that he was originally planning to make part of his card game. Had he dug deeper into that part of the world, he might've even discovered the Pendulum Monsters of the Anunnaki. Of course it doesn't matter now, since the art of Pendulum Summoning has now been resurrected though Rin! That power is the key to revolutionizing the world!"

At that moment, Rin finally got back to her feet. "Divine, I don't know how I got these Pendulum Monsters or where they even came from, but I refuse to believe all this stuff about these aliens."

Divine chuckled. "Denial, an understandable reaction. But you know in your heart that what I'm saying is true! You are a descendant of Anunnaki royalty! With you at my side, I no longer need Aki or any of the others!"

"Divine!" a stunned Aki spoke as a hurt expression came to her face.

"Oh don't look so shocked," Divine responded. "The rest of you were merely pawns. I will grant Aki that you, Anastasia and Matsuri are far more powerful than the average psychic, but your usefulness to me has now ended! I'd think that your recent defeat at Rin's hands was proof of that. And as for you, Anastasia and Matsuri, the fact that you lost to those two powerless idiots shows how useless you truly are."

"Master Divine!" a shocked Anastasia exclaimed.

"I have to admit that I kinda saw this coming," Matsuri indifferently responded.

"Join with me Rin!" Divine spoke. "Together, you and I can reshape this world and reclaim the glory that was stolen from our lost ancestors!"

"Like hell!" Yugo cut in as he got between Rin and Divine. "I'm not letting you come near Rin, you bastard!"

"Ah yes. It seems there's still one little annoyance I need to deal with," Divine realized. "This shouldn't take long though. Someone like you, Yugo Sakaki doesn't stand a chance against me."

Before things could get any further, the conversation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of an engine. Suddenly zooming in through an open door to the stadium was a vehicle resembling a large white wheel. On each side was a blue panel with a large golden letter A. The wheel stopped a few feet away from Divine, allowing Yugo and the others to get a good look at the rider. He had on a white and blue riding suit and helmet. The rider in question removed the helmet, revealing a head of blonde hair and violet eyes. Yugo and the others were totally stunned, as they all knew whom the rider of the white D-Wheel was.

"Holy crap!" Shinji exclaimed. "That's… Jack Atlas!"

"How the hell did he bust out?" Matsuri asked.

"Wait, bust out?" Shinji repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah. Atlas there has actually been a prisoner here for a few months," Matsuri revealed. "He came here around the time those Iliaster freaks took over Neo Domino. The guy was actually really banged up. He was in such bad shape that this weird girl with glasses had to drive his D-Wheel for him. We took him in, but Divine decided to lock him and that weird girl up in the dungeon."

"Well, well. The so-called king of Neo Domino has been sprung from his cage," Divine observed.

"Divine! I'm going to make you pay for the insult of locking me and Carly up like animals!" Jack declared.

"Back off Jack! This bastard is mine!" Yugo declared. "Besides, you and I still have a score of our own to settle!"

Jack looked indifferently at Yugo. "You should stay out of things that aren't your business, runt. As for our business, that can wait until after I crush Divine under my foot."

"What the hell happened to you when Iliaster took over the city?" Crow asked. "We really could've used your help, you know. Just where were you?"

"Where I was isn't any of your business," Jack answered.

At that moment, Rua and Ruka showed up with Hitomi, Saiga, Sid, Izzy and Carly. Rua immediately ran up to Yugo with Ruka following close behind.

"Yugo! I'm so glad you're okay!" Rua spoke. "Can you believe that we found Jack Atlas? The best duelist from Neo Domino was right under our noses this whole time! Now that we've got him, these Acadia Movement losers don't stand a chance! Heck, we can probably even take back the city from Iliaster now that Jack's with us!"

"Just shut up!" Yugo snapped. "Keep your damn hero worship to yourself!"

"Yugo, what…" a stunned Rua began to ask.

"Rua, Yugo doesn't like Jack Atlas, remember?" Ruka reminded him as she put a hand on his shoulder. "Just dial it back a bit."

"I take it this means you're challenging me to a duel?" Divine asked Jack. "Why not? Defeating you will be an excellent demonstration of my power."

"Your psychic powers mean nothing before the might of the king!" Jack declared. "You will regret ever putting me in that cage!"

"I suggest that the rest of you return to the observation lounge," Divine told the others. "This duel is likely to get very messy."

With that, Yugo and the others went back up to the observation lounge to watch the duel. Meanwhile, Divine and Jack moved up to the starting line of the track and put on their helmets.

"Action Field on!" Divine called out. "Road of the Divine!"

The drab grey stadium was instantly transformed into a seemingly endless sea of stars. Several planets and small meteors floated in the distance, and the track itself had changed into a road of golden light. An explosion of white light went off above and several cards rained down upon the field as Jack and Divine took off down the road. It seemed like Jack was going to take the first corner, but at the last second Divine pressed a button on the controls of his D-Wheel and he accelerated around the first corner in a matter of seconds.

"Unlike your D-Wheel, mine is equipped with a one-shot booster," Divine revealed. "You're totally outclassed in this duel."

"Using some gadget to artificially boost your speed and steal the first turn only shows how weak you truly are," Jack responded. "Crushing you might be easier than I thought."

"Bluster all you want, but it will do you no good!" Divine declared. "For my first move, I summon Mind Protector in Defense Mode!"

Appearing beside Divine's D-Wheel was a short golden humanoid robot with large hands with purple hexagonal gems embedded in its palms. On the front of its chest was a rectangular purple screen showing a jagged red line like the kind that might be seen on a heart monitor. It had a roughly cylindrical head with round red eyes and large round electrodes on the sides. Its forehead was a purple tank showing a brain with eyeballs attached.

"Next I play the Spell card, Emergency Teleport!" Divine announced. "With this card, I can special summon a level three or lower psychic monster from my hand! I summon the Tuner monster, Krebons!"

Appearing next to Mind Protector with a flash of yellow light was a slender humanoid creature clad in a blue and white outfit that one might find on a jester or clown. Its head appeared to be detached from the rest of its body. Its face had a wide grinning mouth filled with yellow teeth, and over its eyes was a black visor displaying green lines.

"I tune the level two Krebons into the level three Mind Protector for a level five Synchro Summon!" Divine announced.

Krebon's body flashed orange and changed into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Mind Protector and transformed the robot into three white stars.

"My flames of hatred, inflamed within the abyss of my heart! Becomes the black raging waved that will overrun this world!" Divine chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now, Magical Android!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light, fading to reveal a young woman with long red hair and a strange blue and white metal headdress with round light-blue gems that formed an arch over her head. She had on a green and white dress with gold lines running along parts of it that resembled circuit paths. Covering her torso was strange white and blue armor with a large arch with round light-blue gems that went over the back of her neck. In her right hand, the woman held a strange white, blue and gold shield that was shaped almost like a comma and had glowing light-blue circuit paths running along it. Meanwhile in her left hand, the woman had a blue, white and gold staff with a large blade on the bottom half.

"I'll end my turn there," Divine announced. "And each time my turn comes to an end, Magical Android increases my life points by 600 for each Psychic-Type monster I have on the field."

"Divine seems pretty confident that he can beat Jack," Crow noted up in the observation lounge.

"He may be an arrogant jackass, but there's a reason why Divine is leader of the Arcadia Movement," Matsuri told him.

"Must you speak that way about Master Divine?" Anastasia asked.

"Hey! Were you and Aki listening down there? Divine said that he didn't need us anymore now that Rin here has awakened whatever power she seems to have," Matsuri reminded her. "We were nothing more than tools to that guy!"

"I refuse to believe that," Anastasia declared. "He was merely displeased with us because we lost those duels."

"Maybe not," Aki spoke. "Maybe Divine has been using us this whole time to achieve his own goals."

"Mistress Aki, do you honestly believe that?" a stunned Anastasia asked.

"At the moment, I'm not really sure what to believe," Aki answered.

"The guy is definitely an ass-hat, that we can all be sure of," Crow interjected. "Still, you still ladies have a point. He probably has to be pretty strong to be the leader of the Movement."

"Well no matter how powerful he is, my darling Jack can beat him!" Carly declared.

"Um, who are you again?" Rin asked.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Carly Nagisa," the dark-haired girl answered as she shook Rin's hand. "I'm sort of Jack's girlfriend."

"Seriously?" Crow asked with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't think a girl like you would be his type."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Carly snapped.

"Will all of you please shut up?" Yugo cut in. "I'm trying to watch this duel!"

"Hey Crow. Yugo seems a bit wound up," Shinji whispered.

"Yeah, well… I can't blame him," Crow whispered back. "After all, Yugo and Jack still have a score to settle."

Back down on the track, Jack drew his first card. "I summon Red Sprinter in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Jack's D-Wheel was a horse-like demon with skin the color of dried blood. A pair of curled black horns grew from the beast's head, and in place of hooves its front legs had a pair of five-fingered hands. Its rear legs ended in a pair of feet with two toes growing from the front and the third toe growing from the back. Red flames burned on the back of the demon's head like a mane, and another much longer flame burned from its rear end like a tail. More much smaller red flames burned on its wrists and ankles like tufts of fur.

"When Red Sprinter has been summoned when I have no other monsters on the field, I can special summon a level three or lower Fiend-Type Tuner from my hand or Graveyard!" Jack announced. "From my hand I summon Dark Resonator!"

Appearing beside Red Sprinter was a small demonic-looking creature with a grey horned helmet that covered its entire head. The only parts of its face that visible was a pair of glowing red eyes and a grinning mouth filled with short white fangs. It had on tattered dark-purple robes with a wide red collar, and on its back was a mass of circular brass objects that looked like cymbals. Hanging down the front of its robes was an orange and green banner. In its right hand, the little demon carries a large tuning fork, and in its left was a thin metal rod with a blue orb at the end.

"I tune the level three Dark Resonator into the level four Red Sprinter for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Dark Resonator clinked his tuning fork and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Red Sprinter and transformed the horse demon into four white stars.

"Crimson star shining at heaven's zenith! Descend to this mortal world and bring judgment upon the living!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The celestial demon king! Red Highlander!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of red light, fading moments later to reveal a large humanoid demon clad in a long red leather cape with gold trim. From his back hung a long blood-red cape, and covering his shoulders were pieces of large scaly shoulder armor with gold trim. He had a white almost skull-like head with curved red horns on the sides. In his hands, the demon held a massive scythe with a red blade.

"As long as Red Highlander is on the field, neither player can Synchro Summon monsters other than Red monsters," Jack announced. "I activate Red Highlander's other effect! Once per turn, Red Highlander can destroy all other Synchro Monsters on the field and deal 400 points of damage for each one! Crimson Execution!"

Red Highlander raised his scythe and swung it downward, causing a sharp ring of crimson light to radiate out across the field. The ring cut Magical Android in half, with the two pieces shattering into particles of gold light seconds later. The energy ring kept going and struck Divine, taking his life points down to 4200.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Red Calling!" Jack announced. "This card lets me summon a Red monster back from the Graveyard! Return to the field, Red Sprinter!"

Red Sprinter reappeared on the track with a burst of crimson flames.

"Now I activate the second effect of Red Calling!" Jack announced. "When this card is used while I control a Red Synchro Monster, I can special summon a Fiend-Type Tuner from my hand! I summon Red Resonator!"

Appearing next to Red Sprinter was another small demon similar to Dark Resonator. His robes appeared to be made of red flames, and hanging down the front of his chest was a purple banner bearing a red symbol that looked like the letter A. On the back of the little demon were two sets of black rods joined together by red orbs in a way that made them look almost like wings. Small red flames burned on the demon's helmet in place of horns. In his right hand he carried a large golden tuning fork, and in his left he held a gold rod with a red orb on the tip.

"When Red Resonator has been special summoned, I can target another monster on the field and gain life points equal to its ATK," Jack announced. "I use this effect to target Red Highlander and gain his 2800 ATK as life points!"

The second Red Resonator began to glow with a red aura and fired sparks of red light from the orb on his rod at Jack's D-Wheel. Jack's life points rose up to 6800.

"I tune the level two Red Resonator into the level four Red Sprinter for a level six Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Red Resonator clinked his tuning fork and transformed into two rings made of red light. The rings encircled Red Sprinter and changed the horse demon into four white stars.

"The crimson souls shall become one! All shall tremble before the king's might!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear, Red Wyvern!"

The stars flashed and ignited into a horizontal column of red flames. In moments the flames subsided to reveal an armless dragon with green eyes and red scales. A bright red flame burned from the top of the wyvern's head, and on the side of each wing it had a blade like flame.

"Holy crap!" Rua exclaimed up in the observation lounge. "Jack just summoned two Synchro Monsters in one turn!"

"And Divine is wide open to attack from both of them," Saiga added. "If both attacks get through, Jack wins. I guess his title as king was pretty well earned."

"Red Wyvern, attack Divine directly!" Jack commanded. "Scarlet Flare!"

Red Wyvern opened his beak-like jaws and shot a red fireball across the battlefield at Divine. The psychic duelist was struck in the back and his life points fell to 1800. After taking the attack, Divine found an Action Card floating in a transparent bubble at the side of the road and grabbed it.

"This ends now!" Jack declared. "Red Highlander, attack Divine directly! Crimson Death Star!"

"I activate the Action Card, Displacement!" Divine quickly announced. "This card negates Red Highlander's attack and causes you to take his ATK points as damage!"

As Red Highlander charged across the battlefield towards Divine with his scythe raised, he suddenly seemed to vanish into thin air. A second later though, the celestial demon reappeared behind Jack and slashed his blade across the back of his D-Wheel. Jack's life points dropped back to their original amount of 4000.

"Before you say anything about me getting lucky just now, I should tell you that I know the location of every Action Card on this field and what each card does," Divine revealed. "We're fighting in my domain, Atlas! You may have once been the king of Neo Domino City, but here I am a god!"

"Knowing the details of this field means nothing," Jack declared. "In the end I will crush you all the same. For now though, I end my turn."

Divine drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Dark Resonance Trade! By banishing a Tuner monster from my Graveyard, I can destroy a Synchro Monster on the field to destroy another Synchro Monster from the Graveyard that's two levels lower that the destroyed monster! I banish Krebons from the Graveyard to destroy Red Highlander and revive Magical Android!"

Red Highland suddenly exploded with a blast of smoke and flames. A second later, a dark misty portal appeared next to Divine's D-Wheel and Magical Android emerged.

"Next I summon the Tuner monster, Psychic Commander!" Divine announced.

Appearing next to Magical Android was a humanoid figure clad in a green army uniform with white gloves riding in a silver futuristic hovercraft with a long cannon barrel on the front. He had a grinning mouth filled with sharp fangs, and on his head was a helmet with a black visor showing four red eyes.

"Monsters that are summoned using Dark Resonance Trade are unable to attack," Divine continued. "But it hardly matters, as I now tune the level three Psychic Commander into the level five Magical Android for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Psychic Commander flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Magical Android and transformed her into five white stars.

"My inner darkness, hidden within the deepest depths of my subconscious! Manifest here and dominate all who would mock us!" Divine chanted. "Synchro Summon! Awaken, Mind Emperor Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a crackling beam of black energy that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal a large dragon with a dark-green body. It had an off-white skull-like head with two long straight yellow horns and a pair of small red eyes. In the center of its forehead was a large green cat-like eye. A yellow ribcage covered its chest like armor, and it had thick off-white skeletal arms and legs with yellow claws. Its tail was covered in off-white vertebrae and ended with a pointed yellow blade, and on its back was a pair of large yellow bat-like wings with dark-green membranes.

"That is one mean-looking dragon," Ushio declared up in the observation lounge.

"And it has 2800 ATK," Shinji added. "Jack's Red Wyvern doesn't stand a chance."

"I could just destroy your monster, but that wouldn't be a proper demonstration of my full power," Divine declared. "I activate Mind Emperor Dragon's effect! By banishing a Psychic-Type monster from my Graveyard, Mind Emperor Dragon lets me take control of one of my opponent's monsters! I banish Mind Protector to subjugate Red Wyvern!"

Mind Emperor Dragon fired a beam of green light from the eye on its forehead that struck Red Wyvern in the face. The eyes of Jack's monster glowed with a yellow light, and it flew over to fly alongside Divine's D-Wheel.

"Red Wyvern, attack Atlas directly!" Divine commanded. "Scarlet Flare!"

At that moment, Jack found and grabbed an Action Card at the side of the road. "I activate the Action Card, Displacement! This card cancels Red Wyvern's attack and inflicts his ATK on you as damage!"

"As if I'd let you use one of my own tricks against me!" Divine declared as he grabbed another nearby Action Card. "I activate the Action Card, No Action! This card cancels the effect of Displacement!"

The giant representation of Jack's Action Card shattered as Red Wyvern shot a fireball from his beak-like jaws. The attack struck the front of Jack's D-Wheel, causing it to wobble slightly for a few moments. Jack's life points dropped to 1600.

Soon after, Divine grabbed another Action Card by the side of the road on the right. "I now play the Action Card, Pain Siphon! When the opposing player takes damage, Pain Siphon raises the user's life points by an amount equal to the damage that was taken!"

Divine and his D-Wheel briefly glowed with a blue aura. As the aura faded, his life points rose to 4200.

"Fortunately for you, Mind Emperor Dragon can't attack on the same turn he uses his effect. So I'll have to end my turn here," Divine announced. "By now though, it should be totally clear to you that you've gotten in over your head."

"You're the one who's in over his head," Jack declared as he calmly drew his next card. "Prepare to face the full power of the king!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The whole thing about the Anunnaki and Nibiru at the beginning of the chapter actually comes from the rather crackpot theory of a Russian author named Zecharia Sitchin. Of course I removed the bit from the theory that states that the Anunnaki supposedly created the human race as a sort of slave class. I also used Divine's little monologue to explain how there are no Fusion Monsters in the universe of this story.

As for the duel in this chapter, you might've noticed that Jack used a couple of new Red support cards, one of those being Red Highlander. Red Highlander of course is based on the Dark Highlander monster that Jack used in the 5D's manga. Divine also got a new monster of his own in the form of Mind Emperor Dragon. The dragon is actually a leftover from one of the earlier concepts of this story that had the Arcadia Movement as the main group of antagonists for the whole thing.

Just F.Y.I., it'll be at least another whole week before the next chapter of this story goes up. This week I've got a lot of personal stuff going on that's going to take up quite a bit of time.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	16. Fall of Arcadia

**Author's Note:** I still had that same problem posting the previous chapter as I did with the one before. So in case anyone missed them, you might want to go back an read Chapters 13 and 14.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 16: Fall of Arcadia

"I summon a second Red Resonator in Attack Mode!" Jack announced.

Another fiery Resonator demon like the one Jack had used to summon Red Wyvern earlier materialized next to his D-Wheel.

"Next, since I normal summoned a Resonator monster, I special summon Red Warg from my hand!" Jack announced.

Appearing next to Red Resonator with a flash of crimson flames was a bipedal wolf covered in red fur. It had green eyes and the front of its chest was colored dark-blue. The creature's chest and shoulders were covered in flames, as were its lower legs. Around its waist was a brown belt with a fiery orange diamond serving as the buckle, and hanging down from the front was a red breechcloth with a golden-yellow design on the front. On the wolf creature's arms were grey metal gloves that went up past its elbows and had long yellow claws.

"I tune the level two Red Resonator into the level six Red Warg for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Red Resonator clanked its tuning fork and changed into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Red Warg and transformed the wolf creature into six white stars.

"The heaven and earth shall tremble before the king's might! Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The savage soul, Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of flames that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal a red and black dragon. On its head were three grey horns; one on the back of its head that pointed straight back, and two more on the sides that curved forward. The horns on the sides of the beast's head glowed a fiery orange, and part of the right horn had been broken off. It had a glowing orange scare that went down the center of its face, and three more glowing orange scars on the left side of its chest like scratch marks. More orange scars covered its shoulders and upper legs, and the dragon's right forearm was covered in a sort of bony cast that resembled a ribcage and gave off the same fiery orange glow as its scars. On the dragon's back was a pair of massive red wings with membranes that had a glowing orange flame-like pattern along the edge. The upper part of the dragon's tail had three flat red spikes on each side.

"There it is. Jack's ace monster," Crow observed up in the observation lounge.

"With 3000 ATK, Divine's monsters don't stand a chance," Matsuri remarked.

"Jack's Red Dragon has a lot more power than just ATK points," Crow told her.

"I activate Red Dragon's effect!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, I can destroy as many specially summoned monsters on the field other than Red Dragon with an ATK equal to or less than Red Dragon's ATK. Then, for each monster destroyed, my opponent takes 500 points of damage! Absolute Power Flame!"

Red Dragon's cast began to glow even brighter as he slammed his fist into the road. A tidal wave of flames erupted out over the field and washed over Divine's two dragons, causing them to shatter into golden particles of light. The flames kept going until the hit Divine's D-Wheel, taking his life points down to 3200.

"Red Dragon, attack him directly!" Jack commanded. "Crimson Hell Burning!"

The dragon opened his jaws and breathed out a massive stream of crimson flames at Divine. The brown-haired psychic's life points plummeted to a mere 200 as a result of the attack.

"Wow! Jack is like the coolest duelist ever!" an amazed Rua declared. "He just wiped out all of Divine's monsters and took out most of his life points!"

"As much as I hate to admit it, I can see why Jack is known as the king of the city," Shinji remarked. "He may be a traitor to the Commons, but he could very well be the strongest duelist ever to come out of Neo Domino."

"You're wrong!" Yugo told him. "There's one other guy out there who's way stronger than Jack!"

"You talking about yourself kid?" Ushio asked with a cocky grin. "I'll admit you're pretty tough, but I'm not sure you're at Jack's level."

"No. I'm not talking about me," Yugo told him. "While I'm sure I can take Jack down, there's someone else who's a way stronger duelist than he is!"

"Oh really?" a skeptical Carly asked. "Well if this duelist you're talking about is so strong, then how come he's not the city's king?"

"Because Jack did something to him before the final match of the Friendship Cup," Yugo answered. "And one way or another, I'm gonna find out what happened!"

"Hey Crow, any idea what Yugo's talking about?" Saiga whispered.

"Yeah. I do," Crow answered. "But now's not really the time to talk about it."

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Jack announced.

Divine chuckled a bit as he drew his next card. "That last move of yours actually was pretty impressive. I can see how you became the king of Neo Domino. But while you may be a king, I am a god! Before this duel is over, even you shall be bowing before me!"

"You're truly pathetic if you think those powers of yours make you a god!" Jack told him. "And even if you were, I would never bow to the likes of you!"

"We shall see!" Divine responded. "For my first move, I summon the Tuner monster known as Psychic Necromancer in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Divine's D-Wheel was a skinny man with chalk-white skin. Covering the upper half of the man's head was a white metal mask resembling a skull, with a dark-green window in the top showing his brain. The helmet also had red eyes, and a pair of thick black hoses that connected down to the top of his shirtless back. The man also had on a pair of baggy white pants, and in his right hand was a white metal staff with a green orb at the top.

"I activate Psychic Necromancer's effect!" Divine announced. "By paying half my life points, Psychic Necromancer lets me revive a Psychic-Type monster from my Graveyard! Mind Emperor Dragon may be a Dragon-Type, but he's also treated as a Psychic-Type while on the field and in the Graveyard. So I use Psychic Necromancer's effect to bring him back!"

Divine's life points went down to 100 and the orb at the top of Psychic Necromancer's staff began to glow with an unearthly light. The psychic mystic banged the end of his staff into the ground, and Mind Emperor Dragon reappeared with a massive burst of green smoke.

"The ATK and DEF are reduced to zero," Divine continued. "But that doesn't matter, as I now tune the level two Psychic Necromancer into the level eight Mind Emperor Dragon for a level ten Synchro Summon!"

Pychic Necromancer waved his staff a few times before transforming into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Divine's Dragon and changed him into ten white stars.

"Avatar of my inner darkness from the pits of my subconscious! Take in the wickedness of the world and become its absolute ruler!" Divine chanted. "Synchro Summon! Awaken, Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of crackling black energy, fading moments later to reveal Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon in a new form. The bony armor covering his head and parts of his body had become the color of dried blood, while the rest of his body had turned pitch-black. His horns and claws had turned dark-blue, and he had gained a second pair of large bat-like wings on his back. The end of the beast's tail had gained a second much smaller skull-like head with glowing green eyes.

"An ATK of 3500?" Matsuri observed. "Aki, did you or Asuka, I mean Anastasia know that Divine had a monster that strong?"

"No," Aki answered. "But I guess it doesn't surprise me."

"I activate Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon's effect!" Divine announced. "Once per turn, Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon lets me take control of a monster with a level less than or equal to its own! And of course the monster I choose to control is Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend!"

Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon roared and fired a beam of green light from the eye in the center of his forehead. The beam struck Red Dragon in the face, causing his eyes to glow green. Red Dragon mindlessly moved over to fly alongside Divine's D-Wheel.

"Of course Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon can't attack during the turn he's used his effect, but I can still attack using your monster!" Divine declared. "Red Dragon, attack your former master and show him who his better is! Crimson Hell Burning!"

"I activate my Trap! Fiendish Chain!" Jack announced. "This card negates Red Dragon's attack and negates his effects!"

Just as Red Dragon was about to open fire, several golden chains covered in blue flames suddenly came down from the sky and wrapped themselves around the beast. Red Dragon's arms were bound to his torso.

"Red Dragon is the symbol of my soul!" Jack declared. "If you think I'd let you toy with it so easily, you're sadly mistaken!"

"Fine then. I guess I'll end my turn," Divine announced. "But with the end of my turn, Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon's effect increases my life points by an amount equal to the combined ATK of all special summoned monsters I control!"

The head at the end of Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon's head opened its jaws and fired a beam of green light at Divine's back. Upon being hit, Divine's life points rose up to 6600.

"You can struggle all you like, but in the end you're still powerless before me," Divine declared. "Your defeat will be a shining example of what happens to all those who would oppose me! When people learn that the great king of Neo Domino fell to my power, they will have no choice but to acknowledge my greatness! Afterwards, Rin and I will begin to create a new generation of psychic duelists to rule this world! Imagine, with her royal blood and my intellect, our children will be the perfect beings!"

"You… you mean that bastard wants me to… to…" an outraged Rin spoke as her face turned a deep red.

"I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" Yugo shouted.

"Of course I will have to wait a few years before I can start to make that vision a reality," Divine continued. "Still, Rin is much more suitable for creating a master race of psychics than Aki, not that she wouldn't make a good mistress of course."

"I… I can't believe it…" a horrified Aki spoke.

"Sakaki! If you want Divine's head, you'll have to get in line!" Anastasia snapped.

"Divine!" Jack spoke, regaining the psychic's attention. "For everything you've just said, I'm going to break you in half!" With that, Jack drew his next card. "I summon the Tuner monster, Red Ruler – Crimson Jack in Attack Mode!"

Materializing beside Jack's D-Wheel was a man wearing a long red and black coat similar to the white and blue coat that Jack normally wore. He also had on long black pants with red boots, and grey elbow-high fingerless gloves. On the man's head was a red helmet styled to look like Red Dragon's head, but with much shorter horns. Covering his face was a black visor with a grey faceplate. Spilling out from underneath the man's helmet was long blonde hair that went half way down his back.

"And what do you hope to accomplish using that pathetic monster?" Divine asked. "It only has 100 ATK!"

"When Crimson Jack is used for the Synchro Summon of a Red monster, I can use a level eight Dragon Synchro Monster you control as material for the summon!" Jack announced. "I tune the level one Crimson Jack into the level eight Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend that you stole for a level nine Synchro Summon!"

Crimson Jack changed into a single ring of red light. The ring flew across the battlefield and encircled Red Dragon, transforming him into eight white stars.

"The might of the king ignites and sparks the flames of war! The inferno they bring that herald the flames of war!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! Roar! Level nine! Red Dragon Archfiend Armageddon!"

The stars flashed and ignited into a pillar of crimson flames, dying away moments later to reveal Jack's dragon in a new form. The broken horn on the right side of the dragon's head had been replaced by one made of dark-grey metal, and he had gained a glowing blue mechanical right eye. A dark-grey chest-plate with a glowing orange orb in the center covered his chest, and on his shoulders were large pieces of dark-grey and red armor with rows of spikes running along the top. The dragon's right forearm had become replaced with a futuristic dark-grey laser cannon.

"Interesting," Divine remarked as Red Dragon moved back to fly alongside Jack. "So now we both have monsters with 3500 ATK. It seems we've reached something of a stalemate."

"I activate Armageddon's effect!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, Red Dragon Archfiend Armageddon can destroy a special summoned monster my opponent controls and deal damage equal to its ATK! Armageddon! Blow Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon away! Absolute Power Cannon!"

Red Dragon aimed the cannon on his arm at Divine's dragon and fired a massive beam of crimson light. The attack struck Supreme Mind Emperor Dragon in the chest and caused him to explode with a blast of fire and smoke. Divine's D-Wheel was hit by some of the flaming debris and his life points dropped to 3100.

"Armageddon! Attack Divine directly and end this!" Jack commanded. "End of the World Crimson Hellfire!"

Red Dragon roared and fired a massive beam of energy from the orb in the center of his chest-plate, hitting the back of Divine's D-Wheel and knocking him into the air. The brown-haired psychic's life points plummeted to zero as he was thrown from his D-Wheel. With the duel over, Jack's dragon vanished and the inside of the stadium returned to its original form. Divine hit the ground face-first and was out cold.

Jack brought his D-Wheel to a stop and removed his helmet, turning his head up towards the observation lounge. "Hey! Somebody get down here and lock this scum up in the dungeon! Preferably in the same cell that I was in!"

"Not a bad idea," Ushio spoke. "But what about the rest of these Arcadia Movement psychos?"

"Don't worry. I'll handle them," Aki answered. "So will Matsuri and Anastasia."

"You sure?" Crow asked.

"It'll be no trouble for us," Anastasia assured him. "As of now, the Arcadia Movement is finished."

* * *

Dawn had finally come to Castle Arcadia. During what was left of the night, Aki, Matsuri and Anastasia had rounded up the Arcadia Movement members still loyal to Divine and locked them in other cells underneath the castle. Those who were no so loyal to the Movement's fallen leader were free to join the cause of Crow and the others if they wished to. By the time the Movement had been totally defeated, everyone had gathered in Divine's throne room. Jack had taken a seat on the throne, as he felt he had the right to for defeating the castle's original leader.

"Well, I'm glad that mess is finally over," Crow remarked. "So, what now?"

"If you like, the others and I would be happy to help you reclaim Neo Domino," Aki suggested.

"You guys sure you want to get involved in all that?" Shinji asked.

"Why not? It's not like we have anything better to do now that the Movement is finished," Matsuri answered. "Besides, if Aki saving you guys before is any indication, those Iliaster robots shouldn't be much of a problem for us."

"Well with you guys backing us up, we're sure to be able to take back the city now," Sid confidently declared. "Especially since we now have the great Jack Atlas with us again. Those damn robots don't stand a chance!"

"It would've been nice though if we had our so-called king's help from the very beginning," Crow bitterly remarked. "Where the hell were you Jack?"

"I'm sure we'd all like to know the answer to that," Shinji interjected. "Did the great king of Neo Domino turn tail and run?"

"Hey! What kind of questioning is this?" Carly protested. "After everything Jack went though to save us from that psycho, Divine, where do you get off…"

Jack calmly held up his hand to interrupt Carly. "If you really must have an explanation to why I vanished during the invasion, you can blame Rex Goodwin for that."

"Wait, the guy who sponsored you in the Friendship Cup?" Crow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The same Rex Goodwin who was director of Neo Domino Security?" Ushio asked. "What the hell does he have to do with all this?"

"Goodwin was the mastermind behind the Iliaster takeover," Jack revealed.

"Our boss? In charge of all those robots?" a stunned Sid asked. "Get out of here!"

"It's true," Jack told them. "I found out on the day that pyramid appeared in the sky above the city…"

* * *

 _Jack was sitting on the couch in his mansion in the Tops trying to find something to watch on T.V. He was amazed that even with all the channels he got, he could still find nothing to watch. Just as Jack was about give up and head out for a walk, his television suddenly went to static. He then glanced towards the large window on his right and noticed a large object floating in the sky. Jack went out to the balcony to get a better look and saw that it was a floating metal pyramid._

 _"Hello Jack," a familiar voice spoke from behind._

 _Jack turned around, and standing before him was a pale man with long grey hair, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and white slacks, and silver metal boots. Covering his chest was a piece of silver armor with a black infinity symbol on the front. The man also had on a strange piece of silver headgear that went around the back of his head and covered his ears. Jack instantly recognized the man as his benefactor, Rex Goodwin. He also noticed that Rex seemed to be transparent and that his body was giving off a feint blue aura, indicating that he was a hologram._

 _"Goodwin! What's going on here?" Jack demanded to know._

 _"It is the beginning of a new era," Rex answered. "Today the division between the Tops and the Commons will finally be erased. The entire city will at last be truly united."_

 _"And just how are you going to pull off this little miracle?" Jack asked._

 _"By linking together everyone into a collective consciousness," Rex answered. "One that I control."_

 _"So in other words, you're going to turn everyone in the city into your mindless puppets, is that it?" Jack asked. "Well you can count me out!"_

 _"I'll admit my methods are a bit extreme, but it is the only true way for this city to be united," Rex told him. "If the history of this city has proven anything, it's that competitiveness will ultimately lead to the destruction of the human race. To eliminate that threat, individuality must be sacrificed. But don't be alarmed, Jack. I intend to give you special treatment. You will become my elite warrior, the one who will help make the rest of the world part of my utopia."_

 _"You can forget that, Goodwin!" Jack told him. "I would rather die than become your little toy soldier!"_

 _Rex simple smiled and shook his head. "I knew that would be your response, Jack. I was hoping that you'd come along with my plan willingly, but I guess we'll have to do things the hard way."_

 _With that, Rex's hologram vanished with a blue flash. After a moment, Jack rushed into the mansion and headed straight for the garage. Once inside, Jack fired up his D-Wheel and opened the garage door. As the door opened though, a wall of security droids was standing in his way. Not hesitating for an instant, Jack revved the engine of his white wheel and plowed straight into the blockade. The of the droids were broken, but the surviving robots pulled out small black laser pistols that were holstered at their waists and opened fire. As Jack turned a corner out onto the road, one of the laser blasts hit him in the shoulder, but despite the pain he kept on going and was soon out on the open road._

* * *

"…Eventually the pain became too much for me and I had to take shelter somewhere," Jack continued. "That's when I met Carly. We found a place to hide and she patched up my wound as best she could. Unfortunately, it became harder and harder for us to remain where we were. I managed to get us out of the city, but passed out while we were in the desert."

"That's when I had to take over driving Jack's D-Wheel," Carly added. "Eventually we found this weird castle, where they patched up Jack's wound but then locked us up."

"Well, I guess this means Jack isn't a coward after all," Saiga assumed.

"You're wrong!" Yugo snapped. "Jack is totally a coward!"

"Yugo, calm down!" Rin told him.

"I'm not keeping quiet about this, Rin!" Yugo told her. "Jack's got a lot to answer for! He led me into that trap where I was arrested, and I'm positive that he's responsible for whatever happened to Yusei!"

At this, Jack rose from his chair. "You always were a little punk, Yugo. It seems you still haven't learned to think before you open your mouth."

"Admit it Jack! You're the reason why Yusei vanished right before your match!" Yugo insisted.

"What the heck is Yugo talking about?" Rua quietly asked Ruka.

"No idea," Ruka shrugged.

"Yusei… wait a minute! Jack's final duel in the Friendship Cup!" Carly recalled. "His opponent never showed up. If I remember right, his first name was Yusei."

"Yusei Fudo," Crow confirmed. "Well Jack? How 'bout it? I have to admit, I've always wondered if you had something to do with Yusei not showing up for the final match."

"You're just as stupid as that punk, birdbrain," Jack responded. "I thought you knew me better than that."

"I thought I did too, until you sold out to Goodwin and became a mascot for the Tops," Crow responded.

"Hey, I kinda remember how Jack's final opponent never showed up while watching the Friendship Cup," Ushio recalled. "I always thought Jack's opponent just chickened out."

"So did I," Sid admitted. "Can't blame him though, since Jack's a total powerhouse."

"Well you're both wrong!" Yugo told him. "Jack's the one who was the coward! He couldn't handle that Yusei could beat him, so he did something to get Yusei out of the way!"

Jack then walked over to stand directly in front of Yugo. "That's it punk. I'm not going to let what you're saying about me go unpunished! Tomorrow morning, you and I are having a duel. We'll settle this thing once and for all."

"Fine with me!" Yugo agreed. "I can't wait to finally put you in your place!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed this latest chapter. It might be a few days though before the next one is up. Right now I'm dealing with some seasonal anxiety and depression that flares up around this time of year, so that could cause a bit of a delay.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	17. Shooting Star Legend

**Author's Note:** I had planned to have this chapter up a bit sooner, but I kept running into delays. One of those was bad migraine that stuck with me all of last Sunday. Anyway, on with the next chapter!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 17: Shooting Star Legend

Things had remained pretty tense after Yugo and Jack's little argument. Not long after Jack had stormed out of the room, Yugo had left to make sure that both his deck and his D-Wheel were prepared for tomorrow's duel. Rin had remained behind, as she thought it might be best to give Yugo some space for a little bit. The tension from Jack and Yugo's dispute had remained hanging over the throne room after they had left. Hardly anyone in the room had said a word since the two duelists had stormed off.

"I just don't get it!" Rua spoke, finally breaking the silence. "Why does Yugo have to hate Jack so much? And what's the deal with this Yusei guy you kept talking about?"

Rin sighed and went over to sit next to Rua on the small red couch he and his sister were on. "It's a long story, but I guess you might as well hear about it now. Yusei Fudo came from the same orphanage in the Commons that me, Yugo, Jack and Crow all came from. He was about the same age that Crow and Jack were. Yugo really used to look up to both Yusei and Jack, though he looked up to Yusei more."

"So Yusei was kind of like Yugo's older brother?" Ruka asked.

"More or less," Rin confirmed. "Yusei was pretty much Yugo's hero. I guess he was sort of mine too. The thing about Yusei was that in addition to being a strong duelist, he was also a mechanical genius. And like me, Yusei had a dad who was originally one of Neo Domino's greatest scientists."

"Yusei's dad was the guy to developed the Momentum Reactor," Crow interjected.

"Whoa! Seriously?" a stunned Ushio asked. "Just what kind of orphanage was this?"

"I never would've thought that the son of Dr. Fudo would've ended up in an orphanage in the Commons," Carly spoke.

"Well it couldn't be helped," Crow told her. "Yusei's mom died of some kind of illness not long after he was born, and his dad seemed to drop off the face of the earth. He didn't have any other relatives, so the government just dumped Yusei in the Commons with all the other orphans."

"Anyway, Yusei was pretty much the reason why Yugo became a turbo duelist," Rin continued. I can still remember the day when Yugo decided to build his own D-Wheel…"

* * *

 _It was just after dinner as Rin went through the orphanage looking for Yugo. She found him still in the dining room hard at work drawing something on a piece of paper. There were crayons of multiple colors scattered all around the table._

 _"Yugo, what are you doing?" Rin asked as she walked up to him._

 _"Rin, I've made a big decision," Yugo told her, not once taking his eyes off his paper. "You and I are gonna build our own D-Wheel so we can enter the Friendship Cup one day."_

 _"Um… okay," Rin responded with a raised eyebrow. "What brought this on all of a sudden?"_

 _"You know what Yusei's been doing for the past few nights, don't you?" Yugo asked her. "He's been building a D-Wheel of his own. He told me that he and Jack are gonna enter the Friendship Cup to become the city's champion. That's what I want to do too."_

 _"Well okay, but you're kinda forgetting one thing," Rin told him. "Neither of us knows the first thing about how a D-Wheel even works."_

 _"How hard can it be?" Yugo asked as he finally put down his crayon. "Look, I even drew a picture of what ours will look like."_

 _Rin finally took a close look at the drawing Yugo had been working on and was stunned. The thing on the paper seemed to have the general shape of a motorcycle, but also looked like it was supposed to be some sort of dragon. It also seemed like it was flying through the air. Rin didn't know what sort of D-Wheel Yugo had in mind, but his idea didn't seem very grounded in reality._

 _"Well? What do you think?" Yugo asked._

 _"It's… um… I've never seen anything like it," Rin answered, still with a shocked grin on her face._

 _"I know, right?" a totally oblivious Yugo responded. "Just imagine how the real one will look."_

 _"Uh, look Yugo. Don't you think something like this might be a little too big for you to handle?" Rin asked._

 _"If Yusei can do it, than so can I!" Yugo confidently declared. "Besides Rin, I'll have you helping me."_

 _"Why do I have to be a part of this?" Rin asked._

 _"Why? Because I couldn't picture doing something like this without you," Yugo answered. "I know that if the two of us work together, we can do just about anything. So what do you say Rin? Will you help me?"_

 _"Well… when you put it that way, how can I say no?" Rin answered._

* * *

"…After that, Yugo and I started checking out every book on D-Wheels that we could get from the library," Rin continued. "There were a couple more times in the beginning when I tried to talk Yugo out of this idea, but he was dead set on making it happen. Of course it wasn't long before I realized that we could make it happen."

"The D-Wheel you're talking about is the one that Yugo uses now, right?" Rua realized. "How long did it take you guys to build it?"

"It took quite a while," Rin answered. "Getting the parts that we needed was kind of a nightmare in itself. We never gave up though."

"Didn't you guys get any help?" Ruka asked.

"Nope, and Yugo didn't want any," Rin answered. "Especially not from the one that he looked up to the most…"

* * *

 _Yugo and Rin had spent the past five hours in the garage trying to fire up the engine of their D-Wheel. The vehicle was nearly finished, but the duo was having an impossible time getting the engine to start. After checking over everything for what seemed like the hundredth time, Rin and Yugo tried to fire up the engine once more. At first it sounded like the machine was finally going to rev up, but once again it failed to start._

 _"This is starting to look hopeless," Rin lamented. "Maybe we should give up for the night, Yugo."_

 _"Not yet," Yugo told her. "I think I've almost figured out what the problem is."_

 _"That's like the tenth time you've said that tonight," Rin told him._

 _"Yeah, but this time I'm almost totally sure," Yugo declared._

 _"Looks like you two have made a lot of progress," a voice suddenly spoke._

 _Yugo and Rin both looked, and standing in the doorway of the garage was a young man in his late teens. He had dark hair with golden highlights and bluish-purple eyes, and on his right cheek was a yellow making. The young man had on a blue jacket with round orange-red patches on the shoulders, along with a black shirt that had a unique red design on the front. The rest of his outfit consisted of long blue pants with brown boots and brown gloves._

 _"Yusei!" a started Yugo identified. "How long have you been standing there?"_

 _"Not long," Yusei answered as he walked further into the garage. "I was curious to see how far along you two were. Looks like you've almost got it working. If you like, I can give you two some help getting the engine running."_

 _"Really? That would be…" Rin began, but Yugo held up his hand to cut her off._

 _"Thanks Yusei, but Rin and I want to get this D-Wheel working on our own," Yugo told him. "This is just something we have to do ourselves."_

 _"Well, if you feel that strongly," Yusei replied._

 _Rin let out a heavy sigh. "I'm gonna take a short break Yugo. Let me know when you're ready to try again."_

 _With that, Rin went over to the small fridge in the garage and pulled out a bottle of water as Yugo went back to tinkering with the engine. Yusei went over to join her._

 _"You okay?" Yusei asked._

 _"I'm fine. It's just that sometimes drives me nuts how stubborn Yugo can be," Rin explained._

 _"Yugo's stubbornness can be annoying at times, but it's also one of his best qualities," Yusei told her. "That hardheadedness, that unwillingness of Yugo's to give up, is one of the qualities that makes him a good duelist."_

 _"Okay Rin! I think we can try again," Yugo reported._

 _Rin put her water down on the nearby table and went over to the D-Wheel. Yugo and Rin gave the engine another start, and this time the machine revved to life. Rin and Yugo both cheered at their accomplishment and even hugged each other, though they quickly pulled apart when they realized how close they had gotten. Yusei meanwhile smiled and silently walked out of the garage._

* * *

"…Of course by the time we got our D-Wheel running, it was too late for us to enter the Friendship Cup," Rin continued. "The deadline to sign up had come and gone, but Yugo made his goal to enter the next Friendship Cup and duel Yusei for the championship title. It sort of became my goal as well."

"So you guys all built your own D-Wheels to enter the Friendship Cup?" Rua asked.

"Not all of us," Crow revealed. "The D-Wheel I have now is sort of inherited from this guy I used to work with once. He had entered the tournament and wasn't so lucky. I couldn't enter at the time because I had other responsibilities."

"What about Jack?" Carly asked. "I mean he's a great guy, but he's never seemed like the mechanical type to me. I kind of find it hard to believe that he would've built his own D-Wheel."

"That's because he didn't," Crow told her. "That big white doughnut Jack rides around in was one of the gifts he got from his sponsor. I remember the day when Jack sold out…"

* * *

 _Crow walked briskly through the gritty streets of the Commons with a bag of food in his right hand. The redhead was on high alert because of what he carried. Food after all was scarce in the Commons, and people getting mugged for the groceries they carried was a very common occurrence. As Crow turned a corner on the sidewalk, he saw a familiar tall blonde standing atop one of an abandoned four-story apartment building. Despite the risk, Crow decided to go pay his arrogant friend a visit._

 _Within a few short minutes, Crow had made it up the roof of the building. He saw Jack standing in the center of the rood looking up at the gorgeous skyline that was the Tops._

 _"It's a little early in the day to brood, don't you think?" Crow asked, getting Jack's attention._

 _"What are you doing here birdbrain?" Jack asked._

 _"I was on my way back from shopping and thought I'd say hi," Crow explained as he went over to stand next to Jack. "So, how are your preparations for the Friendship Cup going?"_

 _"That's none of your business," Jack answered flatly._

 _"That bad, huh?" Crow deduced. "You know it's not that big a deal if you're having trouble finding a D-Wheel to use. The tournament staff can just basically rent you out one."_

 _Jack scoffed. "As if I would be caught dead riding one of those bargain basement D-Wheels."_

 _"Oh right. I forgot. You're too good for everything," Crow responded with a roll of his eyes. "Look Jack, you're gonna have to face facts. You may think you're the next king of the city, but in the end you're still from the Commons. If you want to take part in the Friendship Cup, you're gonna have to take a handout."_

 _"Is that what you intend to do?" Jack asked._

 _"Actually, I'm not gonna enter at all," Crow revealed. "I know what happens to the people who lose that tournament, and I've got too many responsibilities to take that big of a risk."_

 _"You still insist on looking after those little kids," Jack observed._

 _"Somebody has to," Crow pointed out. "Maybe if you or Yusei manages to win and change this city for the better, I'll enter the next Friendship Cup. But if you want to enter this one, you're just gonna have to swallow that pride of yours and take one of those rented D-Wheels."_

 _"Never," Jack declared as his fingers tightened around his crossed arms. "One way or another, I'm going to defeat Yusei and dominate this tournament with my own power!"_

 _The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of an obnoxious high-pitched laugh. "My, my! I admire that determination of yours, Mr. Atlas. Someone like you truly has the makings of a champion."_

 _Jack and Crow turned around and saw a short clown-like individual with lavender hair wearing a long red jacket over a white shirt, with long grey pants and black boots. He had a red vertical line over each eye._

 _"Gah! What the hell are you?" a startled Crow asked. "Some kind of escaped circus freak?"_

 _Clearly offended by Crow's comment, the clown cleared his throat. "My name Jaeger. I represent the director of Neo Domino Security, Rex Goodwin."_

 _"Have you come to arrest us for something?" Jack indifferently asked. "The last time I checked, it wasn't a crime for people to stand atop an abandoned building and admire the view, or have you people decided to crack down more on us Commons?"_

 _"Not at all," Jaeger assured him. "In fact Mr. Atlas, I've come here to give you a once in a lifetime offer. Director Goodwin has become aware of your abilities as a duelist and wishes to sponsor you in the Friendship Cup. You would be provided with your own state of the art D-Wheel, rare cards to improve your deck, and anything else you might need."_

 _"And why is this Rex Goodwin you represent interested in sponsoring me?" Jack asked._

 _"Because he believes that you are just the champion this city needs," Jaeger answered. "A duelist of your caliber might just be able to finally unite the people of this city. Imagine it, a champion who came from nothing and use the tournament to pave his way into the highest level of the city. You would be respected by those from both the Tops and Commons alike."_

 _"And you say you'd be giving me my own D-Wheel?" Jack asked._

 _"Of course! Director Goodwin already has one of the top design firms putting it together as we speak," Jaeger answered. "It will be ready right on time for the tournament. All you have to do is agree to sign on with us."_

 _"Don't do it Jack," Crow told him. "This guy is totally shady. I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him."_

 _"Go ahead. Turn down this offer if you wish," Jaeger dared. "I'm sure that even a duelist of your level could do some impressive things with the substandard D-Wheels loaned out by the tournament staff. But the vehicle we're offering could bring out your full power. The choice is yours of course, but we would be giving you a chariot worthy of a king."_

 _"…Fine then. I'll take this Goodwin up on his offer," Jack finally decided._

 _"Marvelous!" Jaeger declared. "Now then Mr. Atlas, follow me. Director Goodwin is eager to meet you."_

 _"Jack!" Crow called as the blonde and Jaeger left. "Are you really just going to let these guys from the Tops turn you into their mascot?"_

 _Jack stopped in his tracks. "Think whatever you want about my choice, but I'm doing this my way! No matter what it takes, I'm taking my rightful place as king!"_

* * *

"…Not long after that, the news started promoting Jack's as the City's next champion," Crow continued. "Jack quickly became the favorite to win the tournament, but even back then there were quite a few people in the Commons who thought Jack was a sellout and a traitor."

"Yugo thought the same way when Crow later told us about Jack's meeting with that clown," Rin revealed. "Like I said before, Yugo looked up to Jack almost as much as Yusei, so he was kind of hurt when he found out what Jack did."

"What did your friend, Yusei think?" Aki asked.

"Actually, Yusei wasn't really bothered all that much either way," Rin answered. "He was just excited that Jack was able to get his own D-Wheel to use in the tournament."

"Yeah. When I told Yusei about Jack selling out like that, he was actually kind of thrilled," Crow recalled. "He was starting to get worried that Jack would refuse to take part in the tournament if he didn't have a high quality D-Wheel. It didn't really matter to Yusei whether or not Jack sold out. Both Jack and Yusei had been rivals for a long time, and the one thing they wanted most was to face each other in a major tournament. Or at least… that's what Yusei wanted. After everything that happened, I'm no longer that sure about what Jack really wanted. Maybe he was really just so desperate to become king that he was willing to do anything for it."

"So what happened after that?" Matsuri asked. "I never saw this whole Friendship Cup tournament you're talking about, so I'm a little in the dark here."

"Both Yusei and Jack defeated every opponent they went up against," Rin answered. "Yugo and I had managed to get front row seats for each duel. Eventually it all came down to Yusei and Jack. Then the day of the final match came…"

* * *

 _It was midday, and Neo Domino Stadium was packed to capacity with fans from the Tops and Commons alike, all eager to see the final match of the tournament. Yugo and Rin had once again managed to get seats at the front to watch what was sure to be the most epic duel the city would ever see._

 _"Man! Why don't they get on with it already?" an anxious Yugo complained. "It seems like we've been waiting for hours!"_

 _"Be patient, Yugo. The match should start any minute," Rin assured him._

 _"Well I sure hope so," Yugo responded. "I just can't wait to see Yusei take down Jack and become champion."_

 _"Um, you do know that there's a strong chance that Jack could win instead," Rin pointed out._

 _"No way. It'll never happen," Yugo declared. "After the way Jack sold out, there's absolutely no way Yusei could lose to him."_

 _Before the conversation could get any further, a large hologram appeared in the air above the stadium. The hologram was of a woman with curly blonde hair wearing a red cowboy hat along with a short-sleeved white shirt, a red very, blue skinny jeans, and brown cowboy boots. In her hand was a white staff with a gold microphone at the top._

"Hello ladies and gentlemen!" _the hologram announced._ "This is your ace reporter and MC for the tournament, Melissa Claire! Today I'm proud to bring you the final match of the Friendship Cup! And with the two duelists we have left standing, this should be the best match this city has seen in years! Before we get into that though, it's time to introduce our competitors! First, we have the rising star of the Commons and favorite for the title of king, Jack Atlas!"

 _After Melissa's introduction, Jack's D-Wheel zoomed out of the pit and stopped at the starting line of the track. Several people in the stands began to cheer Jack's name repeatedly._

"Facing the mighty Jack Atlas is another young up and coming duelist from the Commons!" _Melissa announced._ "His clever duelist style and dazzling dragon have already made him something of a legend here at this stadium! Please give it up for Yusei Fudo!"

 _The crowd once again began to cheer as they waited for Yusei's red D-Wheel to emerge from the pit. Yugo's cheers were among the loudest. After a few moments went by though, Yusei failed to appear. The cheers soon died away, and soon everyone was looking and waiting for Yusei to zoom out onto the track. Almost a minute seemed to go by, and still there was nothing. Before long, the audience members began to mumble amongst themselves trying to figure out what the hold up was._

"Um… it seems we're having some technical difficulties," _the hologram of Melissa spoke._ "Please bare with us as we try to figure out what's going on."

 _With that, Melissa's hologram vanished. Five more minutes seemed to go by, and the audience members were growing more and more impatient. Yugo and Rin meanwhile were both starting to become extremely worried._

 _After another two or three minutes, the hologram of Melissa reappeared._ "Well, I don't know how to tell you all this, but it seems that Yusei Fudo has vanished. We have no idea what happened to him, but his disappearance from the stadium means that Yusei is disqualified. So, this means that our new Friendship Cup champion is the city's rising star… Jack Atlas!"

 _With this declaration, many of the audience members began to cheer and chant Jack's name. Down on the track, Jack drove his D-Wheel back to the pit with a look of disgust on his face._

 _"I don't get it… where's Yusei?" a stunned Yugo asked._

 _"I hope nothing happened to him," an equally concerned Rin spoke. "Something's definitely wrong here."_

 _"Man! What a rip-off!" one of the other spectators near Yugo and Rin declared. "I can't believe we came all the way here for nothing."_

 _"That Yusei guy must've chickened out," another one of the spectators assumed. "Guess I can't blame him though. I mean Jack is awesome."_

 _"Hey!" an outraged Yugo interrupted. "You take back what you just said about Yusei right now! He's no coward!"_

 _"Oh yeah kid?" the second spectator responded. "And what would you know about it?"_

 _"Yusei is a good friend of mine, and there's no way he'd chicken out of this duel!" Yugo insisted. "Now take back what you just said about him!"_

 _"And what'll you do if I don't kid?" the spectator asked. "You wanna make something out of this?"_

 _"Yugo! Come on!" Rin told him as she pulled him away by the arm. "We're leaving right now!"_

 _Yugo grudgingly went out of the stadium with Rin. Within a few short minutes they were back out in the stadium parking lot._

 _"I can't believe those jerks back there!" Yugo complained. "How the hell could anyone thing Yusei chickened out of the duel?"_

 _"I can't believe it either," Rin agreed. "But then why didn't Yusei show up?"_

 _As Yugo and Rin continued to walk, they passed near two people from the Tops who were heading for a waiting limo. Both men were of course talking about the disappointing end to the Friendship Cup._

 _"I must say, this day has been a total letdown," one of the gentlemen declared. "I turned down a lunch invitation from Alicia Pennington just to see this match, and one of the duelists turned out to be a no-show."_

 _"Indeed," the other gentleman agreed. "The whole thing is just a little unsavory, if you ask me."_

 _"What's that supposed to mean?" the first gentleman asked._

 _"Well, the word among many of those poor urchins in the Commons is that Jack Atlas is something of a sellout," the second gentleman explained. "What if Atlas was so desperate to win that he arranged for this other fellow to meet with an 'accident' of some kind?"_

 _"Surely you can't be serious!" the first gentleman declared as they finally reached the limo._

 _"I'm just saying it's a possibility," the second gentleman told him as they got into the car. "Of course we may never know the truth either way, and in the end it doesn't really matter."_

 _Rin and Yugo ended up watching as the limo drove off. Both of them reacted strongly to the conversation they had just overheard._

 _"Don't people like that have anything better to do than gossip?" Rin asked._

 _"Maybe they're onto something," Yugo told her. "Maybe Jack does know something about why Yusei never showed."_

 _"Yugo! You can't be serious," a stunned Rin spoke. "I'll admit that I don't like how Jack seemed to sell out like that, but he'd never do something that low."_

 _"Rin, it's the only damn thing that makes sense!" Yugo snapped. "Jack must've done something to Yusei! Otherwise it means that… that… it means something that I refuse to believe! Jack at least knows something about what happened to Yusei, and I'm gonna get the truth out of him!"_

* * *

"…From that day, Yugo was convinced that Jack had something to do with the reason why Yusei never showed up for the duel," Rin continued. "Yugo could never believe that Yusei chickened out, and honestly I couldn't either."

"Well you two are way off base about Jack having your old friend eliminated like that!" Carly told her. "Jack would never do anything like that! Maybe you and Yugo just can't accept the fact that maybe this Yusei really did run scared!"

"You shut your mouth lady!" Crow snapped. "I don't know what happened that day, but I do know that Yusei would never back out of a duel like that!"

"Okay, okay!" Matsuri interrupted. "Let's all just calm down here people. So Rin, what exactly happened after Yugo had this little revelation?"

"Not much until a few months ago, about right before Iliaster took over the city," Rin began. "Yugo and I were driving home after running some speed tests on our D-Wheel. The next Friendship Cup was just around the corner, and we wanted to make sure it was ready. Anyway, we ran into a little surprise on our way back…"

* * *

 _The sun was setting as Yugo drove down the highway with Rin riding behind him on the back of his D-Wheel. The traffic on the road was light, allowing them to make good time back towards the apartment. As they came near the next turn-off though, they saw an all-too familiar wheel-shaped vehicle up ahead on the road._

 _"Jack!" Yugo identified._

 _"I wonder what he's doing out here?" Rin asked._

 _"Rin, hold on tight!" Yugo told her as he revved the engine._

 _Rin held on for dear life as the D-Wheel shot off like a rocket towards Jack. In moments, Yugo passed Jack by and his D-Wheel fishtailed as he came to a sudden stop right in front of the blonde champion. Jack was left with no choice but to come to a sudden stop._

 _As soon as her heart started beating again, Rin hit Yugo on the shoulder. "Dammit Yugo! Are you trying to kill me? Don't drive like that while I'm aboard!"_

 _"Jack! You and I have some stuff to talk about!" Yugo declared, totally ignoring Rin._

 _"What do you want runt?" an annoyed Jack asked._

 _"I want to know what you did to Yusei!" Yugo answered. "Why didn't he show up for the final duel of the Friendship Cup?"_

 _"How should I know?" Jack responded. "Now get lost!"_

 _"No way in hell!" Yugo shot back. "You're not going anywhere until I get some answers! And I'll beat them out of you if I have to!"_

 _"That's big talk for a little punk like you," Jack responded. "You really think you've got what it takes to face me?"_

 _"You bet I do!" Yugo declared. "I'll duel you in Yusei's place!"_

 _"…Fine then. I'll take you on," Jack agreed. "I'm not one to turn down a challenge like that. Besides, someone clearly needs to put a little punk like you in your place. I teach you how foolish it is to take on the king!"_

 _"Then let's do this!" Yugo told him._

 _"Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't face you right now," Jack replied. "I'm supposed to be at a party that Goodwin roped me into. We'll duel tomorrow night at the old pier at midnight! Don't insult me by being late!"_

 _With that, Jack drove around Yugo's D-Wheel and sped off down the road._

 _"Yugo, I don't think that challenge was such a good idea," Rin told him. "Why couldn't you just wait until you faced Jack at the end of the next Friendship Cup?"_

 _"I'm can't wait that long," Yugo answered. "This is all gonna get settled tomorrow night."_

* * *

"…But it never was," Rin continued. "The next night, Yugo went out to duel Jack, only to get arrested by security. Most of you pretty much know the rest of the story. Not long after Yugo vanished, Iliaster took over the city. And now here we all are."

"Well, it looks like Yugo and Jack can finally settle things," Crow observed.

"That's all well and good, but shouldn't all of this wait until after we take own Iliaster?" Saiga asked.

"No. It can't," Aki told him. "Yugo and Jack have too many things between them that need to be resolved. Like it or not, none of us here can move forward until this is settled. Those of use who were with the Arcadia Movement are more than willing to help defeat Iliaster, but we must be united before we can do that."

"Aki's right," Matsuri agreed. "We need to let these idiots duke it out."

"Anastasia, please go and start preparing the special field behind the castle for Jack and Yugo's duel tomorrow," Aki requested.

"As you wish, mistress," Anastasia responded before kissing Aki on the hand, causing the redhead to raise an eyebrow.

"You know she has the hots for you, right?" Matsuri whispered to Aki as Anastasia left.

"Um, no. I never realized that," Aki whispered that.

"What's this special field that you're talking about?" Crow asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Aki answered with a small smirk. "I get the feeling that for a duel of this caliber, we'll need the best field that the Movement has at its disposal."

* * *

The hour had grown late, and Yugo was in his room checking over his deck. He had probably gone over every single card at least a hundred times, but he needed to be sure his deck was at its best. Yugo's preparations were interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Who the heck is it?" Yugo responded.

The door opened and Rin entered. "Just wanted to see how you were doing."

"You aren't going to try and talk me out of this duel, are you?" Yugo asked.

"Of course not," Rin answered with a heavy sigh. "I know there's nothing I can say to talk you out of doing this. Just be careful out there tomorrow, okay? Jack may have his title by default, but he's still an incredibly powerful duelist."

"Don't worry, I'm ready for him," Yugo confidently declared. "Tomorrow morning, Jack Atlas is going down!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I apologize that this chapter delayed the duel between Yugo and Jack, but I felt it important to lay down some backstory first. So Yusei more or less has the same role that Yuya's father Yusho had in the ARC-V anime, and even vanished under the same circumstances. The funny thing is that I hadn't realized that I had copied Yusho's disappearance in the anime until the outline was just about finished. I'm sure it was intentional on my part, but it was also subconscious. Anyway, in the next chapter we'll finally have Yugo and Jack's big showdown. Hopefully I'll have it up for everyone soon.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	18. Honor and Pride

**Author's Note:** Now we come to one of the major events of this story, the epic duel between Yugo and Jack. One of the big reasons why I wanted to do this fanfic is because we never got to see Yugo and Jack duel in the anime. At the very least it would've been very interesting, since the effect of Yugo's Clear Wing could negate the effect of Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend. Instead though, the anime only gave use three duels between Jack and Yuya, the third of which was totally unnecessary and only ate up time that could've been used to oh, I don't know... revive Yuya and Yuzu's counterparts!? Of course this isn't the place for me to rant about everything that was wrong with the ARC-V anime's ending, or its entire third season. You came here to read a duel, and that's what you're going to get.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 18: Honor and Pride

The morning sun had only just risen above the horizon of the wasteland around Arcadia Castle as Yugo got out of bed. After getting dressed, he began checking over his deck one last time before heading out. He needed to make totally sure that he was ready for anything that his greatest opponent yet might throw at him. Satisfied that his deck was totally in order, Yugo headed down to the castle's garage. A few minutes later, the young turbo duelist drove his D-Wheel out of the castle and found Jack's D-Wheel already at the edge of the field they were going to be clashing on.

"So you actually had the nerve to show up, eh runt?" Jack remarked just after Yugo pulled up next to him.

"You son of a bitch," Yugo cursed. "I'm gonna make you eat those words at the end of this."

Suddenly a giant transparent hologram of Matsuri in a white cowgirl outfit appeared before them. _"Good morning Castle Arcadia! Get ready for the most pulse pounding duel seen here in years!"_

"Hey! What the heck are you doing?" Yugo called up to the hologram.

 _"What do you mean? I'm acting as MC for this duel,"_ Matsuri answered. _"Don't take this from me!"_

"Getting worked up over something this petty only proves how pathetic you really are," Jack taunted.

"What was that?" an annoyed Yugo shot back.

Matsuri loudly cleared her throat. _"Okay! So, this morning we have the treat of seeing the duel of the century, folks! Today, Jack Atlas, king of Neo Domino will be facing a new rising star from the Commons, Yugo Sakaki! And now without further delay, I present the field that our two challengers will be facing each other on! Action Field on! Land of Wind!"_

A white light suddenly washed over the wasteland, giving the once grey ground a luminous golden quality. Soon after, a black racing track materialized over the glowing field, creating an elaborate course. In the same instant, thick dark clouds covered the morning sky. A holographic timer appeared in front of Yugo and Jack and began to count down as the two of them revved their engines.

 _"Let's go!"_ Matsuri called. _"Turbo Duel! Acceleration!"_

Matsuri's hologram vanished, and the sound of thunder could be heard as an explosion of white light went off in the sky above, scattering Action Cards all over the field. A split second later, the timer hit zero and Yugo and Jack took off down the track at full speed. As the two of them came to a curve to the left, Yugo pulled ahead of Jack and took the corner.

"My move!" Yugo declared. "Since I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

Yugo's train of red mechanical tops materialized next to Yugo's D-Wheel.

"When Terrortop is summoned to the field, I can add another Speedroid monster to my hand!" Yugo announced. "I use Terrortop's effect to pull Den-Den Daiko Duke from my deck. Now I summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

The blue pyramid-shaped die appeared on the field next to Terrortop.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level three Terrortop for a level six Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange before changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Terrortop and transformed the chain of tops into three white stars.

"Sacred wings that command the meteor shower! Ride the wild wind of souls around this world!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Fly! Level six! Stardust Charge Warrior!"

The stars flashed and became a beam of white light that shot down the track, fading moments later to reveal a warrior clad almost entirely in sleek light-blue armor. Covering his entire head was a silvery-blue helmet resembling the head of a dragon with a three-pointed crest. On his chest armor were two shining sapphire panels. The warrior's arms were clad entirely in armor, with the armor covering his shoulders and hands covered black. On his legs he had on knee-high blue and gold boots, and underneath his armor he had on a black bodysuit with red lines running across parts of it. Attached to the back of the armor covering the warrior's waist were two light-blue metal, each with a set of four white and blue blades that were almost like the blades of a Swiss Army knife.

"Yusei may not have gotten the chance to beat you, Jack. But he's right here with me in this duel!" Yugo declared. "I'm going to use the card I inherited from him to beat you in his place!"

* * *

Rin and most of the others had been watching the duel from a special observation lounge in the castle. Footage of the duel was being transmitted to a large monitor in the room, allowing the gang to get a close-up view of the action without actually having to be there. With the exception of Rin and Crow, many of the spectators were surprised to see the monster Yugo had just summoned.

"I sure didn't see that coming," Ushio remarked. "I would've thought the kid would start off by summoning one of those Hi-Speedroids of his."

"Yusei gave Yugo that card the morning after with got our D-Wheel running," Rin explained. "This is the first time I've actually seen Yugo use it in a duel though."

"I totally get why Yugo is using Yusei's old card," Crow spoke. "But it'll take more than what he inherited from Yusei to win this thing."

* * *

"When Stardust Charge Warrior is Synchro Summoned, I can draw one card!" Yugo announced. "I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

"You conceited brat," Jack spoke as he suddenly pulled ahead of Yugo. "If you think you can beat me just by imitating Yusei, then you have no business facing me!" With that, he drew his first card. "First I set one card on the field! Then I summon Red Sprinter in Attack Mode!"

Jack's fiery red horse demon materialized to run alongside his D-Wheel.

"When Red Sprinter is summoned while I have no other monsters, I can special summon a level three or lower Fiend-Type monster from my hand!" Jack announced. "I summon Dark Resonator!"

The small Resonator demon materialized on the track to fly next to Red Sprinter.

"I tune the level three Dark Resonator into the level four Red Sprinter for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Dark Resonator clanked his tuning fork and transformed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Red Sprinter and changed the horse demon into four white stars.

"Crimson star shining at heaven's zenith! Descend to this mortal world and bring judgment upon the living!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The celestial demon king! Red Highlander!"

The stars flashed and became a beam of crimson light that shot down the track, fading moments later to reveal Jack's scythe-wielding demon.

"While Red Highlander is on the field, neither of us can Synchro Summon any monsters except for Red monsters," Jack announced. "I activate Red Highlander's effect to destroy all other Synchro Monsters on the field to deal 400 points of damage for each one! Crimson Execution!"

Red Highlander swung his massive scythe, and a razor-sharp ring of crimson energy radiated out from his body across the battlefield. The ring sliced into Stardust Charge Warrior and cut him in half. The two pieces of the slain monsters shattered into particles of gold light as the ring of energy struck Yugo before vanishing, taking his life points down to 3600.

"Red Highlander, attack Yugo directly!" Jack commanded. "Crimson Death Star!"

"I activate my Trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Yugo announced as Red Highlander charged across the track. "This card negates your monster's attack!"

"Quit trying to imitate Yusei!" Jack told him. "I activate the Trap I set at the beginning of this turn, Red Vanish! When I have a Red monster on the field, I can activate Red Vanish during the same turn it's been set! Furthermore, Red Vanish negates the activation of a Spell or Trap card and destroys it!"

Yugo's scarecrow of junk appeared to block Red Highlander's attack, only to burst into flames a split second later. The ashes of the scarecrow blew away in the wind and Red Highlander continued his charge. Once in range, the demon slashed Yugo's D-Wheel with the blade of his scythe. Yugo's D-Wheel wobbled as his life points plunged to a mere 800.

Jack turned his D-Wheel to look Yugo in the eye. "Quit wasting my time, Yugo! If you think you can defeat me just by imitating Yusei, then you're unworthy of facing me! This duel has been nothing more than an insult! Both to me and to Yusei!"

"What the hell did you just say?" Yugo asked.

"Yusei was one of the strongest duelists I've know, the only person I considered to be a true rival," Jack admitted. "Just because you have his cards doesn't mean you can take his place! If you're going to duel me, than duel me using your own power! Not an imitation of someone else's!"

Jack's words, struck a cord with Yugo. He had to admit that the blonde duelist had a point.

Jack huffed and turned his D-Wheel back around. "I set two cards on the field and end my turn!"

Remembering his anger towards Jack, Yugo sped up his D-Wheel to drive alongside his opponent. "Okay Jack, I get what you're saying. But one way or another, I'm going to make you pay for everything you've done! That includes luring me into that trap where I got caught by security!"

"I had nothing to do with security showing up that night!" Jack told him. "I had every intention of showing up for that duel. Unfortunately, Goodwin had other ideas…"

* * *

 _It was the dead of night as Jack walked to garage of his mansion while adjusting the gloves of his riding suit. The blonde duelist found that he was quite eager to put Yugo in his place. When Jack entered the room and turned on the light though, he found Rex standing in front of his D-Wheel with his hands folded behind his back._

 _"Good evening, Jack," Rex spoke. "Isn't it a little late for you to be going out for a ride?"_

 _"It's certainly a little late for me to be taking houseguests," Jack retorted. "What are you doing here, Goodwin?"_

 _"I came to inform you that I've canceled the meeting you arranged with your little friend," Rex answered._

 _"You what?" an outraged Jack exclaimed._

 _"As we speak, a small squad of duel chasers is lying in wait at your little meeting place," Rex revealed. "And before you ask how I knew about this duel, you should know that I've been having you followed, for your own good, of course. You never know when one of your fans might get a little bit too obsessed with you."_

 _"You had no right to interfere in my business with Yugo!" Jack told him._

 _"Jack, you must remember that you have an image to protect now," Rex told him as he walked a little closer. "You are now the king, the champion of this city. People from both the Tops and the Commons look upon you as a shining beacon of hope. We can't afford to run the risk of you losing to some no-name street urchin from the Commons, especially not in an unsanctioned turbo duel."_

 _"You must have a low opinion of my skill as a duelist if you're that afraid of me losing to Yugo," Jack remarked._

 _"Not at all. But I don't like taking any unnecessary risks," Rex told him. "And to prevent you from defying me and going out to perhaps save your little friend from being captured, I'm afraid you're under house arrest for the duration of the night."_

 _With that, Rex snapped his gloved fingers. Soon after, the other door to the garage opened and two security officers walked in._

 _"These gentlemen will be keeping you company until morning," Rex informed Jack. "Now then, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to elsewhere."_

 _With that, Rex calmly walked past Jack and left the garage. Enraged, Jack slammed the side of his fist onto the workbench he was standing next to._

* * *

"…I may have been the City's king, but really I was also Goodwin's puppet," Jack continued. "Once I finish my business with you, I intend to go back to Neo Domino and wring that bastard's neck for everything he's done."

"You really expect me to buy this crap?" Yugo asked.

"I don't care if you do or not," Jack told him. "It doesn't really matter because I'm going to crush you into the ground either way."

"Like hell!" Yugo shot back as he suddenly sped up and pulled ahead of Jack. "The only one who's going to get crushed into the ground today is you!"

* * *

Back in the castle's observation lounge, Rin and the others had heard every bit of Jack's story about what really happened the night that Yugo was captured.

"So Jack really wasn't responsible for setting Yugo up?" Rin asked.

"It sure looks that way," Crow admitted.

"Of course Jack had nothing to do with that," Carly told them. "He's not that kind of guy. That Rex Goodwin on the other hand is total scum."

"He definitely is if he's really the one running Iliaster," Shinji pointed out.

"It's certainly a surprise to me. Not that I've ever met Rex Goodwin myself though," Ushio admitted.

"I did see him during an inspection tour he did of my precinct once, but he didn't say to words to me," Sid admitted.

"You know… if Goodwin was really the one behind Yugo's arrest, then maybe he's also the reason why Jack won the Friendship Cup," Crow theorized.

"You mean… Goodwin had something to do with Yusei's disappearance?" a shocked Rin asked.

"It makes sense, considering what we now know about the guy," Crow pointed out. "Goodwin wanted Jack to be champion no matter what it took. Eliminating Yusei, the one guy in the tournament who had the best shot at beating Jack, would've been the best way to make sure that happened."

"Maybe we should go ahead and tell Yugo about this," Rin suggested.

"Now's not the time for that," Crow told her. "Jack and Yugo need to resolve this on their own. I will say one thing though, I'd sure like to get my hands on Goodwin so I can ask him a few questions."

* * *

Yugo drew his next card. "I summon Speedroid Pachingo-Kart in Attack Mode!"

Yugo's blue go-kart-like machine materialized on the track next to his D-Wheel.

"I activate Pachingo-Kart's effect and discard Den-Den Daiko Duke to destroy Red Highlander!" Yugo announced.

"I activate a Trap, Red Crystal!" Jack announced. "This card prevents Red monsters from being destroyed by battle or card effects during this turn!"

Pachingo-Kart fired a large red ball from the cannon built into its front at Red Highlander. Before the projectile could hit though, three floating red crystals materialized in front of the scythe-wielding demon.

At the same time, Yugo found an Action Card inside a multicolored bubble in his right and quickly scooped it up. "I activate the Action Card, Divine Denial! This card negates the effect of an opponent's Spell or Trap card and destroys it!"

A massive bolt of blue lightning came down from the cloud-covered sky above and struck the crystals protecting Red Highlander, causing them to shatter. The red cannonball fired by Pachingo-Kart kept on going and struck Red Highlander in the chest, causing him to explode with a blast of fired and smoke.

"Next I activate Den-Den Daiko Duke's effect from the Graveyard and banish him to summon Tri-Eyed Dice back to the field!" Yugo announced.

On cue, the pyramid-shaped die reappeared on the field next to Pachingo-Kart.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level four Pachingo-Kart for a level seven Sycnhro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings then encircled Pachingo-Kart and transformed the racer into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a white beam of light that shot down the track and extended outward. The beam of light faded seconds later and Yugo's cybernetic dragon emerged with a roar. As soon as Clear Wing appeared, Jack and Yugo both spotted a pair of Action Cards floating next to each other at opposite edges of the track. The two of them quickly sped up to try and grab them.

"Clear Wing, attack Jack directly!" Yugo commanded. "Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Clear Wing took off higher into the air, and as the dragon's body became shrouded in a green whirlwind while taking off into the air, Jack managed to grab the Action Card at the left edge of the track. A split second later though, Yugo managed to snag the other Action Card at the track's opposite edge.

"I activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Jack announced just as Clear Wing dove down towards him. "This card cancels your dragon's attack!"

"I activate an Action Card of my own, No Action!" Yugo announced. "This card negates the activation of your Action Card and destroys it!"

Jack swerved to try and avoid being hit by Clear Wing's attack, but the armored Dragon brushed the side of his D-Wheel and caused it to wobble. Jack's wheel-shaped vehicle managed to keep on going, but his life points had fallen to 1500.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yugo announced.

Jack smirked as he drew his next card. "Well runt, it looks like you may give me a bit of a challenge after all."

* * *

Please review and let me know what you think.


	19. Crystal Dragon

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 19: Crystal Dragon

"Because I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Red Gargoyle!" Jack announced.

Materializing beside Jack's D-Wheel was a red humanoid demon with four arms, a long tail, and a muscular body. It had yellow eyes and a mouth filled with short white fangs. A single short horn grew from the demon's forehead. Green markings that almost resembled claw marks decorated its shoulders, chest and thighs. Red flames burned from the back of the demon's neck and tail, as well as from around its waist and the lower edge of its bat-like wings.

"Next I summon Red Resonator in Attack Mode!" Jack announced.

Jack's small fiery demon appeared on the track next to Red Gargoyle.

"When a Red monster is summoned while I have Red Gargoyle on the field, I can double that monster's level!" Jack announced. "I change Red Resonator's level from two to four! I now tune the level four Red Resonator into the level four Red Gargoyle for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Red Resonator clinked his tuning fork and changed into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Red Gargoyle and transformed the other demon into four white stars.

"The heaven and earth shall tremble before the king's might! Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The savage soul, Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of flames that shot down the track and expanded outward, subsiding moments later to reveal Jack's battle-scarred dragon. Clear Wing roared in response to the appearance of Red Dragon, causing Jack's dragon to roar back. In that instant, Yugo began to feel the burning sensation of the dragon-like marking on his back. His heart also began to race a bit, but he managed to remain focused on the duel.

* * *

Back in the observation room of the castle, the green gemstone in Rin's bracelet had started to glow. Meanwhile, Crow, Aki and Ruka had pulled out the cards for their respective dragons after noticing that they had started to give off a strange white light.

"What the hell is going on here?" Crow asked.

"This happened before when Ms. Aki summoned her dragon in that battle against Iliaster," Hitomi recalled.

"Ruka? You okay?" Rua asked upon noticing that his sister had seemed to go into some kind of trance.

"Clear Wing and Red Dragon… they're calling to one another," Ruka spoke.

"She's right," Aki interjected. "Somehow our dragons are connected to one another. I can't explain how though."

"Great," Crow sarcastically responded. "And just when I thought we were done with this weirdness."

* * *

"I activate Red Dragon's effect!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, I can destroy all specially summoned monsters on the field and deal 500 points of damage to my opponent for each one! Absolute Power Flame!"

"Big mistake! I activate Clear Wing's effect!" Yugo announced. "Once per turn, Clear Wing can negate the effect of a level five or higher monster and destroy it! Dichromic Mirror!"

A large fireball began to form around Red Dragon's right hand. At the same time, circuit paths began to light up on Clear Wing's transparent green wings.

"I activate a Trap card, Red Howl!" Jack announced. "When a monster effect is activated while I control a Red monster, I can negate that effect and halve the ATK of all monsters my opponent currently controls! Your Clear Wing's effect is canceled!"

"Guess again! I activate my own Trap, Crosswind Counter!" Yugo announced. "When my opponent activates a Spell or Trap card in response to the effect of a Synchro Monster I control, Crosswind Counter lets me banish a Speedroid from my Graveyard to negate that card! I banish Pachingo-Kart to cancel the effect of Red Howl!"

As Red Dragon's fireball continued to grow larger, Jack and Yugo spotted another pair of Action Cards up ahead on the road. Jack pulled ahead and grabbed the Action Card on the right.

"I activate the Action Card, Divine Denial!" Jack announced. "With this card, I negate the activation of Crosswind Counter!"

Yugo quickly grabbed the remaining Action Card on the road. "I activate the Action Card, Encore! This card lets me reuse the effect of an Action Card in the Graveyard! I reuse the effect of No Action to cancel Divine Denial!"

At that moment, Red Dragon launched a massive fireball across the field at Clear Wing. In the same instant though, Clear Wing fired a massive blast of energy from his wings. The blast tore though the fireball, scattering the flames to the wind, and kept on going until it struck Red Dragon. Upon being hit, Red Dragon was instantly vaporized.

"Clear Wing gains the ATK of the monster destroyed using his effect until the end of the turn!" Yugo announced. "Which means right now, his ATK is at 5500!"

"Impressive," Jack remarked. "You did a better job of holding out against me than I had expected… but I was actually prepared for this outcome the whole time! I activate my other Trap, Burning Resurrection! When one of my Red monsters is destroyed by an opponent's card effect, I can summon that monster back from the Graveyard and have it gain the current ATK of one of my opponent's monsters! I revive Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend and have it gain Clear Wing's ATK!"

A massive pillar of crimson flames suddenly burst up from the ground beside the track as Jack and Yugo passed by, subsiding to reveal Red Dragon. The battle-scarred dragon roared at Clear Wing as his ATK rose up to 8500.

"Crap!" Yugo cursed.

Jack found another Action Card ahead of him on the road and snagged it. "Red Dragon, attack Clear Wing and end this duel! Crimson Hell Burning!"

"I activate the effect of Tri-Eyed Dice from the Graveyard!" Yugo announced. "By banishing Tri-Eyed Dice, I can negate the attack of an opponent's monster!"

Red Dragon breathed out a stream of flames at Yugo's dragon. Before the attack could hit though, a ghostly version of Tri-Eyed Dice appeared in front of Clear Wing and shattered apart to become a triangular barrier of multicolored light. The stream of flames struck the barrier, causing it to shatter into small particles of light that blew away on the breeze.

"A nice block, but also pointless!" Jack announced. "The moment Red Dragon attacked, I activated the Action Card I just found, Brutality! Because of this card, Red Dragon became able to attack twice during this turn!"

Yugo frantically began to look around for another Action Card that could help him fend off Jack's next attack. Suddenly he noticed that the track forked off to the right, leading to a ramp on the edge of a massive almost diamond-shaped pit. There was another ramp at the opposite end of the pit, and floating in the air right above the crevasse inside a multicolored bubble. Yugo had no idea what the card was, but it was probably the only chance he had to survive.

"Let's go! Clear Wing!" Yugo called as he revved up his D-Wheel.

Clear Wing roared in response and Yugo sped past Jack and went down the track to the right. The cybernetic dragon followed after his master closely. Jack could see what it was Yugo was after but did not move to stop him.

"Your struggles are pointless!" Jack declared. "End this now, Red Dragon! Crimson Hell Burning!"

Red Dragon roared and flew after Yugo and Clear Wing while Jack remained on his current route. Before Red Dragon could get in striking range though, Yugo made it to the ramp at top speed and took off into the air over the pit. Less than half way across, Yugo's D-Wheel suddenly began to fall towards the chasm. He had only fallen a few inches though when Clear Wing spun around in midair and got underneath Yugo's D-Wheel. Yugo landed on the cybernetic dragon's back, and Clear Wing lifted him up high enough to grab the Action Card.

"I activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Yugo announced. "This card cancels Red Dragon's attack!"

Clear Wing flew Yugo's D-Wheel to the ramp at the other side of the pit and lowered his head to allow Yugo to drive off. A split second after Yugo got back on the road, Red Dragon breathed out another stream of crimson flames at Clear Wing, but the armored dragon did another midair spin and evaded the attack at the last moment while rising higher into the air. Clear Wing smacked Red Dragon in the face before speeding off down the track after Yugo. Enraged, Red Dragon let out a loud roar that echoed across the wasteland before flying after his escaped rival.

* * *

Back in the observation lounge of the castle, everyone was totally stunned by the maneuver that Yugo had just done on the track.

 _"Oh… wow!"_ Matsuri's voice spoke over the room's intercom. _"After some amazing death-defying stunts on the track, Yugo Sakaki has managed to survive two fatal attacks from Jack Atlas! Folks, this may just go down as one of the most intense turbo duels in history!"_

"Sweet merciful crap," Sid spoke as he lowered his sunglasses. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone on a D-Wheel do something like that. That kid's got balls!"

"No kidding," an equally astounded Ushio agreed. "I'm suddenly glad I never had to try and chase him down and arrest him."

Rin meanwhile was sitting on the couch with a totally shocked expression frozen on her face. Her mouth was open wide enough to let a train through.

Crow noticed the expression on the green-haired girl's face. "Hey Rin, you okay?"

"Wh… wha… what the hell was Yugo thinking?" Rin practically shouted. "That crazy stunt of his almost gave me a heart attack! Did he think that D-Wheel of his could fly? He could've gotten himself killed!"

"Whoa! Rin, relax," Crow told her as he patted her on the shoulder. "I'm sure Yugo knew that Clear Wing would catch him before he crashed. You know, Yusei did some pretty crazy stunts on his D-Wheel too."

"Rin, you must care for Yugo quite a lot if you were that scared he'd crash," Aki observed.

Rin's face turned a deep shade of red upon hearing Aki's remark. "Well you know… he and I grew up together. Why wouldn't I care about him?"

"I see," Aki replied with a slight chuckle.

"So, anyone think Yugo has a shot at winning this thing?" Shinji asked.

"Hard to say," Crow responded. "I don't think anyone can predict how this duel will turn out. I will say one thing though. This is the best I ever seen Yugo play."

* * *

Yugo got back onto the normal route of the track and picked up speed to ride alongside Jack, with Clear Wing following right behind him. Red Dragon meanwhile returned to fly by Jack's side, growling a bit at Clear Wing for whipping him in the face earlier.

"I end my turn," Jack announced. "And with the end of my turn, the ATK of our dragons returns to normal. You gave quite an amazing performance just now, Yugo. Yusei would be impressed."

"Don't you dare say Yusei's name to me, you bastard!" Yugo shot back. "Maybe you weren't responsible for sending security after me, but I know you had something to do with his disappearance!"

Jack's original calm expression was replaced by a scowl. "You dumb brat… the fact that you keep thinking that I had something to do with Yusei's disappearance shows you know nothing! Yusei and I were looking forward to that duel in the Friendship Cup for years. When he disappeared, I lost the one person in this world I consider to be a true rival. Now that he's gone… there's no one left to push me to my limits!"

Yugo got a good look at Jack's eyes as he spoke, and he could tell that the blonde was truly angry that Yusei disappeared. For the first time in ages, Yugo had doubts that Jack had anything at all to do with Yusei's disappearance.

"You… you really had nothing to do with it… did you?" Yugo realized. "Well then… well then why the hell didn't Yusei show up?"

"How should I know?" Jack shot back. "All I know is that I've lost the only worthy opponent that I've ever had. Now I'm stuck with second-rate opponents like you."

"Wait, what the hell did you just call me?" Yugo asked.

"I'll admit that your performance before blocking my attacks was impressive, but you still don't have what it takes to face me," Jack told him.

"Why you…" Yugo responded as he clenched his fist. "That's it! I don't care if you had something to do with Yusei vanishing or not! I'm gonna take you down hard!"

"Then give me all you've got!" Jack dared.

Yugo drew his next card. "I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

On cue, Yugo's large yellow metal die materialized on the track by his D-Wheel.

"I tune the level 1 Red-Eyed Dice into the level seven Clear Wing for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Clear Wing and transformed into seven white stars. At the same time, the mark on Yugo's back began to glow even brighter.

"Shine the wings that store the holy light and strike down your enemies with its radiance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a dazzling beam of white light that shot down the track and expanded outward, fading away seconds later to reveal Clear Wing in a new form. The skin on his face and the front of his neck had taken on a purplish tint, and blue armor covered the back of his neck as well as his upper arms. Three long light-blue crystalline horns grew from the white armor covering the dragon's head, and a shorter crystal horn covered his snout. On the back of the dragon was a large dazzling pair of light-blue crystal wings. Small crystal shards grew from the armor covering the dragon's chest and shoulders. Large white and gold thrusters with pointed crystals were mounted on the sides of the dragon's waist. The armor covering his tail alternated from blue to black.

As soon as Crystal Wing emerged, he let out a loud roar that echoed across the wasteland. Red Dragon roared just as loudly in response, and a massive bolt of lightning shot across the sky.

* * *

Back in the observation room, Rin and the others were very surprised to see Yugo's new dragon. As soon as Crystal Wing had appeared, the light from Rin's bracelet and the dragon cards belonging to Crow, Ruka and Aki had intensified.

"Where the heck did that dragon come from?" Shinji asked.

"No clue at all," Crow answered. "This is the first time I've seen Yugo play it. Rin, did you know anything about this?"

"No," Rin answered as she looked again at her glowing bracelet. "This is the first time I've ever seen him use it. I have no idea where it could've come from."

"The prince of Synchro Monsters has evolved," Ruka spoke, still apparently in a trance. "His drive to overcome Red Dragon combined with Yugo's determination to defeat Jack has caused him to reach a new level of power."

"Ruka, what the heck's gotten into you?" a concerned Rua asked. "You've been acting weird ever since Jack summoned his dragon."

"It could be that your sister is somehow in tune with the spirit residing in her dragon card," Anastasia theorized. "Divine did theorize that she has the power to communicate with Duel Monster spirits."

"You're kidding, right?" Crow asked.

"Believe what you want, but I can tell that Ruka knows what she's talking about," Aki told them. "Yugo's desire to defeat Jack has caused his dragon to evolve."

* * *

"I use Crystal Wing to attack Red Dragon!" Yugo announced.

"But both our dragons have 3000 ATK!" a surprised Jack pointed out.

"When Crystal Wing attacks a level five or higher monster controlled by my opponent, it gains that monster's current ATK during the battle!" Yugo announced. "Crystal Wing! Attack Red Dragon and end this! Krystallos Gale Edge!"

Crystal Wing roared before taking off high into the air like a rocket, leaving a trail of white light behind him. After soaring to an incredible height, the crystalline dragon shot down towards Red Dragon like a rocket. At that moment, Jack saw an Action Card by the side of the road and sped up to grab it. Crystal Wing slammed into Red Dragon's chest, creating a blinding explosion of light that washed out the entire battlefield. When the light finally subsided though, Red Dragon was still in the air and Jack's life points had only fallen to 750.

"What the… What the heck just happened?" a stunned Yugo asked.

"I activated the Action Card, Defiance," Jack explained. "When a monster of mine would be destroyed by an attack that would also take my life points to zero, this card negates that attack at the cost of halving my life points and the ATK of the monster that would be destroyed."

Yugo gritted his teeth in frustration. "I end my turn!"

Jack drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Red Cauldron! When I have Red Dragon Archfiend on the field, Red Cauldron lets me draw four more cards! However, during the turn I activate this card, I can only Synchro Summon Dragon-Type monsters, and I'll have to send my entire hand to the Graveyard at the end of the turn. I now summon Red Rider in Attack Mode!"

Materializing beside Jack's D-Wheel was a red motorcycle decorated with an orange and yellow flame pattern. On the front of the motorcycle was a yellowed dragon skull with thick curved horns. The rider of the motorcycle was a man wearing a black leather jacket and black jeans with red boots. A red scarf was tied around the rider's neck, and covering his entire head was a white skull-like helmet with curved red horns on the sides.

"When Red Rider is normal summoned, I can summon a Fiend-Type Tuner monster from my hand!" Jack announced. "I summon Double Resonator!"

Appearing next to Red Rider was another Resonator demon that was distinctly different than the ones Jack had used before. This demon wore tattered purple robes, and handing down the front of his chest was a light-grey banner with an orange wing-like symbol in the shape of a W. Around his neck was a large blue spiked collar, with three long spikes at the back and small brass bells hanging around the front. What made this demon distinct from his brethren was he had two heads, each wearing a helmet that had a long curved spike on the front and a shorter curved spike on the back. The right head had a gold helmet and a smiling face with red eyes, while the left head wore a silver helmet and had a frowning face with green eyes. Attached to the demon's lower back was a curved metal rod that had an orange crystal sphere on each end. In the demon's right hand was a large gold tuning fork, while the left hand carried a metal rod with a purple crystal sphere on one end and a small two-pronged fork on the other.

"I activate Double Resonator's effect!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, Double Resonator lets me change another Fiend-Type monster I control into a Tuner until the end of the turn. I use this effect of Red Rider!"

Double Resonator waved the rod in his left hand and blasted Red Rider with a purple beam of light from the crystal on the end. Upon being hit, the demon biker began to give off a green aura.

"I tune the level one Double Resonator and Red Rider into the level eight Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend for a level ten Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Double Resonator clinked his tuning fork and changed into a single ring made of red flames. Red Rider flashed orange and also transformed into a ring of fire. Both rings encircled Red Dragon and shrouded him inside a massive fireball.

"Ruler and Devil, they cross now and here! Touch the soul of the Crimson Dragon and raise the cry of creation!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level ten! Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend!"

Suddenly a massive serpentine dragon made of red light came down from above and struck the fireball containing Red Dragon, causing a massive explosion. The light of the explosion soon faded to reveal Red Dragon in a new form. Most of the scares on his body had been healed, and his head had gained five thick curved red horns with glowing orange tips. He had six glowing orange lines on the armored hide of his chest that were like scratch marks, and the bony cast that had been on his right forearm had vanished. On his back was a pair of massive wings that glowed orange along the bottom edge. The dragon had more glowing orange scratch marks on his muscular upper legs, and he had a long thick tail with glowing orange lines and what looked like a large red feather at the end.

"Tyrant Red Dragon, attack Crystal Wing!" Jack commanded. "Infernal Crimson Hell Tide!"

Tyrant Red Dragon's body suddenly became shrouded in crimson flames. The dragon breathed out a stream of flames towards Crystal Wing.

"Bad move Jack!" Yugo told him. "When Crystal Wing battles a level five or higher monster, he gains that monster's ATK during the battle!"

"I activate the effect of Red Daredevil from my hand!" Jack announced. "When one of my Red monsters attacks a level seven or higher monster, I can discard Red Daredevil to have that monster gain the current ATK of its target during the battle!"

Appearing in the air was the ghostly image of a man with long fiery red hair and short red horns growing out of his head. He had on a white mask resembling a skull, and a red jumpsuit with an orange and yellow flame pattern decorating the lower half, along with orange gloves and boots with fringe. Red Daredevil jumped down and disappeared into Tyrant Red Dragon's back, raising his ATK to 10,000.

At that moment, Yugo found another Action Card by the side of the road and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This cancels Tyrant Red Dragon's effect!"

"I activate one of Tyrant Red Dragon's effects!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, Tyrant Red Dragon can negate the activation of a Spell card and gain 500 extra ATK!"

"In that case, I activate Crystal Wing's other effect!" Yugo announced. "Once during either player's turn, Crystal Wing can negate the activation of a monster's effect and destroy it! Then he gains that monster's original ATK until the end of the turn!"

The crystalline wings of Yugo's dragon then lit up and fired an intense blast of white light towards Tyrant Red Dragon. The blast pushed through the stream of flames from Jack's dragon and snuffed them out. Tyrant Red Dragon was hit by the full force of the blast and vaporized. With Tyrant Red Dragon gone, Crystal Wing roared in triumph.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn," Jack calmly announced.

Yugo drew his next card. "It's over, Jack! Crystal Wing! Attack Jack directly!"

Suddenly a pillar of red lava exploded from the ground by the track as Jack and Yugo drove past. Some of the lava splashed onto Crystal Wing, causing him to roar in pain. In moments the lava subsided to reveal Red Dragon in his original form.

"What the hell?" Yugo exclaimed. "What's going on?"

"I activated my Trap, Tyrant Dragon Legacy!" Jack explained. "When my opponent declares a direct attack, Tyrant Dragon Legacy lets me banish Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend from the Graveyard to summon Red Dragon Archfiend back from the Graveyard! Furthermore, the effects of all monsters my opponent controls are negated!"

* * *

 _"A tough break for Yugo Sakaki, ladies and gentlemen!"_ Matsuri's voice announced over the intercom in the castle's observation room. _"With the effects of Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon negated, there's no way Yugo can overcome Jack's apparently immortal Red Dragon!"_

"Looks like this might be it," Shinji assumed. "Yugo's done very well, but it seems like he's finally hit a wall."

"No! Yugo's not done yet," Rin told them. "Not after he's come this far. I know he can still find some way to win."

* * *

"This is as far as you go, Yugo," Jack declared. "You did much better than I expected, but you've now reached your limit."

"Crystal Wing! Attack Red Dragon!" Yugo commanded. "Krystallos Gale Edge!"

"What? But your Dragon's ATK is 3000 points lower than mine!" a stunned Jack exclaimed. "All you'll do is destroy yourself!"

"I activate a Quick-Play Spell, Shooting Star Wings!" Yugo announced. "When a Dragon-Type Synchro Monster of mine attacks a level five or higher monster, that monster loses 1000 points for each Tuner monster in both our Graveyards during the battle! Right now I have one Tuner in my Graveyard, and you have three Tuners in yours! That means Red Dragon loses 4000 ATK!"

Crystal Wing soared high into the sky and dove back down towards Red Dragon at full speed, leaving a trail of white light in his wake. As Crystal Wing came near, a fiery silver aura in the form of another dragon appeared around him. This dragon had two large magnificent wings and a head with a long horn on the front of the snout and a large three-pointed crest. Crystal Wing rammed into Red Dragon's chest, creating a massive explosion of light. When the light faded, Jack's life points had dropped to zero.

With the duel at an end, Crystal Wing vanished and the overcast sky cleared. The track that Yugo and Jack had been driving along had vanished as well.

The giant hologram of Matsuri reappeared in the wasteland. _"It's all over, folks! And the winner of this duel is… Yugo Sakaki!"_

"Yugo! You did extremely well," Jack praised. "You're still not at Yusei's level yet, but I now consider you to be a true rival."

"Jack, one day I will reach Yusei's level," Yugo declared. "You can count on it."

Jack nodded, and the two of them began to drive back to the castle. When they arrived at the castle's rear gate a few minutes later, Rin and the others were outside waiting for them. Both Jack and Yugo dismounted their D-Wheels to go over and meet them. Jack immediately went over to Carly, who had tears streaming down her face due to Jack's defeat. Rin and Yugo meanwhile met one another half way.

"You were incredible out there," Rin praised.

"Thanks. I don't think I could've done it without your support," Yugo replied.

"So tell me, what gave you the idea to have Clear Wing catch you and fly you to that Action Card over the pit?" Rin asked.

"Oh! Well… to be honest, that was a total accident," Yugo admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. "I actually thought I could make that jump on my own. If Clear Wing hadn't caught me, I totally would've crashed."

"So… you really could've gotten yourself killed with that jump?" Rin asked.

"Yep. I really got lucky, huh?" Yugo responded with a grin.

Rin stomped hard on Yugo's foot and stormed off towards the castle. Yugo meanwhile was left hopping on one foot and grumbling under his breath.

"Dammit! What the hell was that for?" Yugo asked.

Shaking his head, Crow went up to Yugo and patted him on the shoulder. "You know Yugo, it really is amazing how clueless you can be sometimes."

* * *

The sun had almost completely set as Yugo stood outside on one of the castle towers looking out over the wasteland. His mind was still going over everything that happened in his duel with Jack. The one thing that had surprised Yugo about the duel was that he found out Jack wasn't the person he thought.

"Hey," a familiar voice spoke, shaking Yugo from his thoughts. Yugo looked back and saw that it was Rin.

"Oh. Hi Rin," Yugo responded. "Um, I'm sorry I freaked you out with that jump I made during the duel."

"It's fine. I'm over it," Rin told him as she went over to join him. "Just try not to do anything that crazy and stupid again."

"I'll do my best," Yugo assured her. "…You know Rin, after today I'm convinced that Jack had nothing to do with Yusei vanishing."

"I'm convinced too," Rin replied. "Jack hated the fact that Yusei never showed up because they never got the chance to settle things. Jack may have been a sellout before the Friendship Cup started, but in the end he was always an honorable duelist."

"Yeah… but then if Jack had nothing to do with Yusei disappearing, what the hell happened?" Yugo wondered.

"…Crow asked the same thing when we were watching the duel," Rin revealed. "He thinks that Yusei might've disappeared because of the man behind Iliaster, the one who sponsored Jack for the Friendship Cup, Rex Goodwin."

"You really think that guy had something to do with what happened to Yusei?" a stunned Yugo asked.

"Who knows?" Rin answered with a shrug. "The only way to find out for sure is to ask this Goodwin in person, and that's pretty hard to do at the moment."

"Then I know what I have to do now," Yugo declared. "I'm gonna take down Iliaster and find out from Goodwin what happened to Yusei! Even if I have to beat the answer out of him!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well, I hope the second half of this duel lived up to everyone'e expectations. I really tried to make it a knockdown drag-out brawl between Yugo and Jack's dragons, a task that was made a whole lot easier thanks to the Action Cards. By the way, that whole stunt where Clear Wing flew Yugo over that cliff was inspired by the moment from Yuya and Jack's third and unnecessary duel from the anime where Clear Wing lifted Yuya high enough to grab that Action Card. Originally I had it in mind that Yugo had planned the jump to go that way, but then it occurred to me that Yugo probably wouldn't plan that far ahead. Plus it provided the opening for another comedic moment between Rin and Yugo at the end.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	20. Capture

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 20: Capture

Things had become quite peaceful at Castle Arcadia during the three weeks following Yugo and Jack's duel. The survivors of Neo Domino and the members of the Arcadia Movement that were loyal to Aki had truly come together as a single group. Yet despite this new bond, the group had been unsure about how to go about taking on Iliaster. There had been much debate about whether or not to try launching an all-out assault on the city; with some thinking that such an attack might be too great a risk. Meanwhile, Yugo and Rin had been at a total loss as to how to even get close enough to ask Rex Goodwin about Yusei's disappearance.

It was early in the morning as Sid stepped out onto one of the balconies of the castle. He had taken to doing his own little security checks of the castle in the morning and night. As the security officer took a look out over the wasteland, Sid saw some kind of massive shape moving towards the castle from the direction of Neo Domino. Taking out a pair of binoculars he had brought with him, Sid looked and saw that the strange moving shape was a hoard of security droids.

"Holy crap!" Sid exclaimed. "I better get word to the others quick, or we're all screwed!"

With that, Sid ran back into the castle as fast as his legs could carry him.

* * *

Yugo grumbled to himself as he fiddled with the inner workings of his D-Wheel down in the castle's garage. He had been out for a ride just to get some fresh air when he had heard the machine suddenly make a loud bang. Black smoke had started to come from one of the seams at the side, and the D-Wheel had instantly ground to a halt. Yugo had been thankful that he had at least only made it a few feet from the castle wall when his machine had broken down, otherwise he would've had a very long hot walk back. It was summer, and the temperature of the wasteland was known to get into the hundreds at midday.

For the last hour, Yugo had been unsuccessful in finding out what had caused his D-Wheel to break down. Rin had been sitting quietly on a nearby crate, on hand to assist Yugo if and when he needed it. So far though, all Rin had done was listen to how vast Yugo's vocabulary of curse words was.

Just as Yugo had called his D-Wheel a piece of junk for the fiftieth time, Crow walked into the room with a half-eaten energy bar in his hand. "I heard you guys a little breakdown. Anything I can do to help?"

"Thanks, but I think we've got things covered," Rin answered. Yugo then slammed the top of his fist into the non-functioning motorcycle, only to curse at the resulting pain in his hand. "Then again, I may need your help carrying Yugo to the hospital wing."

"Hey Yugo, maybe you should take a break from all that for a little while," Crow suggested.

Yugo wiped the sweat from his brow. "Yeah… that's probably a good idea."

"So, any more talk about what to do regarding Iliaster?" Rin asked as Yugo took a seat next to her on the crate.

"Nah. Things are still pretty deadlocked," Crow answered while taking about bite from his energy bar. "The thing is even with the help of Jack and our new psychic friends, we'd still be up against a huge army. I think we need more people helping us before we take on Iliaster."

"But where the heck is this help going to come from?" Yugo asked.

"No idea," Crow answered with a heavy sigh. "The fact is there aren't a lot of places here in Japan we can turn to. Saiga suggested that we could try reaching out to other countries, but there's no guarantee they'd be willing to help us. Hell, they probably wouldn't even believe us if we told them what was going on. Plus even today, other countries seem to treat Japan like a leper colony because of the asteroid strike back in 2012."

"So we're just going to wait around here then?" Rin asked.

"For now anyway," Crow answered. "Of course both Jack and Shinji are super eager to storm the gates of the city."

"I guess I am a little bit too," Yugo admitted. "That Goodwin guy who's running Iliaster… he has to know something about what happened to Yusei. One way or another, I'm gonna find out."

Before the conversation could get further, Sid practically tripped into the room and stood catching his breath. "Crow! Big trouble… Iliaster… on the way!"

"Say what?" Crow exclaimed as an equally startled Yugo and Rin got to their feet.

"I saw a huge army of security droids heading towards us," Sid reported as he finally caught his breath. "They should be here in probably an hour, maybe less."

"Dammit!" Crow cursed. "Sid, you better start getting everyone ready to evacuate. In the meantime, I better meet with the others."

* * *

Yugo and Rin had joined Crow in the castle's throne room with the other de-facto leaders of the resistance. Jack was sitting in his usual place on the throne with Carly standing next to him. As the army of security droids bore down on them, the group was trying to figure out what their next move should be.

"The way I see it, our only option is to evacuate and fall back to another position," Crow told them.

"You mean turn tail and run?" Jack asked. "And here I thought you were a Crow, not a chicken. I say we stand and fight! Those damn robots would be nothing before my skill as a duelist."

"Gee Jack! Do you think you could take on the whole army for us?" Crow asked very sarcastically. "Because that would be awesome! I can't believe I forgot about what a huge ego you have! We'd be pulverized if we just tried to stay here and defend this castle!"

"I can't believe you've turned into such a coward!" Jack shot back as he stood from his throne. If we keep giving ground to Goodwin, we'll be under his thumb forever!"

"Jack, Crow does kind of have a point," Carly told him. "I mean you're probably the best duelist there is, but there are like probably over a thousand of those droids out there. Even you would get worn out trying to fight all of them."

"It'd be one thing if we were the ones taking the fight to Iliaster, but they're the ones coming after us," Ushio pointed out. "And they're probably going to hit us with everything they've got after the way Aki thrashed them that one time. I think Crow has the right idea here."

"But where exactly would we fall back to?" Aki asked.

"There's still our old option of Crash Town," Saiga suggested. "I know there's a chance Iliaster already knows about that plan after assimilating Briggs and Duffy, but it could be that they assumed we gave up on that plan. Plus once we get into the mines and set up shop, we'd be practically undetectable."

"One problem with your idea though is that those droids could easily follow us to Crash Town if they wanted to," Shinji pointed out.

"Not if we take the right route," Anastasia told them. "I am familiar with the town you're speaking of. There is one path we could take there that would confuse Iliaster as to where we were going and even cut them off from following us. By the time they calculated another route, we might be safely hidden in these mines you speak of."

"Okay. Saiga, you and Anastasia work on our escape plan," Crow decided.

"What I can't figure out is how Iliaster was able to find us after all this time," Matsuri interjected. "Divine had Mortimer build this gadget that was supposed to make this castle undetectable to them."

"You mean like a cloaking device?" Saiga asked.

"Something like that," Matsuri confirmed.

"But this castle isn't invisible," Yugo pointed out.

"Well yeah, not to us. But it is apparently invisible to reconnaissance droids that Iliaster might send out," Matsuri pointed out. "It's something about how the eyes of those robots don't work the same way as human eyes, or something like that. I'm not good at understanding technical stuff like that."

"Crow, if we could take that device with us and use it in the mines, we'd probably be completely undetectable," Saiga theorized.

"Yeah, but… it must not be working anymore if Iliaster is finding us now," Crow pointed out.

"Which was what I was trying to say just a minute ago," Matsuri told them.

"What if there's some other reason Iliaster was able to find us?" Aki suggested. "If there was something that somehow tipped them off to our location, it would be worth it to take that device with us."

"But how do we figure out what tipped them?" Carly asked.

"Divine might know something," Aki answered. "He worked pretty closely with Mortimer when he built the thing. With Mortimer in a coma, Divine's the only person who might have an answered."

"Okay then. Saiga, have Izzy get to work on pulling that cloaking device or whatever it is out of the castle," Crow ordered. "In the meantime, I think a few of us better go have a little chat with this castle's former owner."

* * *

With the evacuation already underway, Crow headed into the dungeon level of the castle with Aki, Jack, Carly, Yugo and Rin. The six headed directly for the cell they had been keeping Divine in. Within moments, they had reached a large square cell with a glass door and lit by green lights. Divine was sitting on the metal cot in the cell starring at the wall in front of him.

Aki approached the cell door and pressed the intercom button next to it. "Divine, we need to talk."

Divine looked towards the door. "Well, I'm certainly surprised to have all these visitors all of the sudden. To what do I owe this privilege?"

"Iliaster is heading for the castle as we speak," Aki explained.

"Are they now?" Divine indifferently responded. "That took a little longer than I expected."

"Matsuri mentioned something about this castle having a sort of cloaking device," Crow interjected. "If that's true, how is it that Iliaster detected us?"

"A good question. I do know the answer of course, but it's going to cost something for me to tell you," Divine told them.

"Oh come on!" Yugo exclaimed. "I say we go in there and beat it outta him!"

"Not a bad idea," Jack agreed.

"What the hell is it that you want, Divine?" Crow asked.

"Nothing big. I just want you to take me with you," Divine answered. "You are evacuating the castle, right? I simply wish to go with. Is that too much to ask?"

"After all the stuff you've pulled, we should just leave you for dead," Crow told him. "But… we are kind of desperate. Okay, we'll take you with us. But just remember one thing, Divine! You're still our prisoner!"

"Fair enough," Divine replied. "Okay. So the reason Iliaster was able to detect this castle through the cloaking field is because of your dear friend, Rin Akaba."

"Me?" a stunned Rin asked.

"Why the hell are you blaming Rin for this?" Yugo demanded to know.

"I'm not blaming anyone. Just stating a fact," Divine told them. "Iliaster detected the energy reaction from the Pendulum Summon that Rin performed in her duel with Aki, an intense energy not ever before seen in this modern world. The cloaking device was never properly adjusted to hide a power like that."

"So… this really is all because of me?" Rin asked.

"Rin, this isn't your fault," Aki told her. "Iliaster probably found us here eventually, one or another. We all knew that we couldn't stay here forever."

"Now then, I've given you the information you needed," Divine interrupted. "I trust you'll hold up your end of the bargain."

Crow let out a heavy sigh. "Anybody got any cuffs?"

* * *

The resistance had managed to evacuate the castle just before the hoard from Iliaster descended upon the place like locusts. The convoy did not have much of a lead though. The army of droids had been hot on their tail from the very beginning, and they had sent forth droids armed with Granel decks on high-speed D-Wheels to try and bring them down. Jack, Aki, Matsuri and Anastasia had taken up the rear of the convoy to try and hold the droids off. The convoy's plan was to get to Crash Town via a route that went over a naturally formed stone bridge that went across a vast canyon a few miles away from the castle. Once across, Aki and the other psychics planned to use their powers to shatter the bridge and cut the army of droids off. By the time the droids could find another way across the canyon, the resistance would be safely hidden away at the new base.

With his D-Wheel still busted, Yugo had been forced to ride in the back of a security van along with Rin, Ruka, Rua, Hitomi and Carly. Rin had been asked to ride in the transport because Crow had been afraid Iliaster might have a special interest in her because of her ability to Pendulum Summon and didn't want to make it easier for the droids to capture her. What made the ride even more unpleasant was that Rin, Yugo and the others also had to share the transport with Divine. The brown-haired psychic's wrists and ankles had been chained, but his mouth was still unrestrained.

"You know, if you people really wanted to survive this, you'd let me go out there to help fight off those droids," Divine told the others. "After all, I am one of the most powerful psychic duelists here."

"Will you shut up already?" Carly told him. "Dammit! Why the hell doesn't this guy have a gag on?"

"Because Crow said that would be inhumane or something like that," Yugo answered.

"You have to admit that with my abilities, Aki and the others would have a much better chance of fighting those droids," Divine continued.

"Look you sleaze, we don't need your help at all!" Carly told him. "Besides, in case you forgot, Jack wiped the floor with you in that duel, so you're not as powerful as you think!"

"Perhaps, but I could still wipe the floor with those droids," Divine insisted. "It'd be foolish to pass up anything that might give you an advantage in a survival situation like this. In fact, you should be letting Rin help out as well. Iliaster wouldn't have a chance against her untapped power."

"You leave Rin out of this!" Yugo told him. "I don't know what kind of person you think she is, but she doesn't have to help in the battle. Besides, I think she's a lot safer in here."

"Perhaps, but her just sitting in here means that she's putting everyone else in danger," Divine told him. "Her power may be the only thing standing between you and certain doom."

* * *

Jack, Aki, Matsuri and Anastasia were at that moment engaged in battle against five security droids. Each one had summoned a copy of Meklord Emperor Granel to the field. Meanwhile, Jack had just summoned Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend, while the others had no monsters out.

"I activate Tyrant Red Dragon Archfiend's effect!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, Tyrant Red Dragon can destroy all other cards on the field!"

Tyrant Red Dragon struck the ground with his right fist and caused a massive wave of flames to rise and strike all three Granel monsters. The Meklord Emperors immediately exploded upon being hit.

"I activate the Action Card I found earlier, Onslaught!" Jack announced. "This turn, a monster I control can make an attack for each card destroyed by a card effect! Tyrant Red Dragon, attack all of them directly! Infernal Crimson Hell Tide!"

Tyrant Red Dragon's body became shrouded in crimson flames right before he breathed out a wave of fire that struck all four droids. The life points of the five security droids fell to zero upon being hit, causing each of their heads to explode. Soon after the five droids became inactive though, another four droids broke away from the hoard and came after them.

"Oh dammit!" Matsuri cursed. "How much longer are we supposed to keep this up?"

"It shouldn't be for much longer," Anastasia assured her. "The stone bridge is just up ahead. Once we're across, I'll destroy it and block the droid army's path."

Aki pressed a button on the consul of her D-Wheel. "Crow, can you have the convoy move any faster? We're not sure how much longer we can hold out."

 _"We're already going as fast as we can,"_ Crow's voice replied over the communication system. _"Keep in mind that not all of these vehicles are as fast as a D-Wheel. You guys are just gonna have to hold out for a little while longer."_

"Understood," Aki responded before flipping off the communicator. "Looks like we're going to have to buy a little more time."

"That's fine with me," Jack confidently declared. "I can take on these pathetic droids for hours."

"You've lost half your life points and almost half your Extra Deck is in the Graveyard," Matsuri pointed out. "Do you really think you can hold out for much longer?"

"You obviously have no idea of what I'm truly capable of," Jack told her. "All of you better pay close attention! For you're about to witness the full power of the king!"

The four security droids that had gone on ahead of the hoard arrived and joined the duel. Each of them gave off electrical sparks from the 2000 life point intrusion penalty.

Jack smirked as the first droid drew its card. "Bring it on!"

* * *

Rua was looking out the rear window of the van at the duel outside as the convoy finally reached the stone bridge. He could see Tyrant Red Dragon taking out another Meklord Emperor and finishing off another security droid, finishing off the last of the new group of droids that had come after the four duelists.

"How's it going out there, Rua?" Ruka asked from her seat.

"A lot better than I expected," Rua answered. "Jack is really kicking some serious butt out there."

 _"Attention everyone!"_ Ushio's voice spoke over an intercom in the van. _"Almost every vehicle has made it across the bridge. Please hold out for a little bit longer."_

"Well then, I guess it's time I made my exit," Divine decided.

Suddenly the shackles around Divine's wrists and ankles came unlocked on their own and his chains dropped to the floor. Everyone else stood frozen as the psychic rose to his feet.

"Oh come now, did you all really think that those chains could hold me?" Divine asked. "I was just playing along until the right time came."

Divine then aimed the palm of his right hand at the rear door of the van, causing it to open on its own. A startled Rua was barely able to pull himself back to keep from falling out that back and had ended up falling on his rear.

"Now Rin, come with me," Divine spoke as he held out his hand to the green-haired girl. "Together, you and I will remake this entire world into a shining paradise. The two of us will be worshiped as gods."

"There's no way in hell I'm going anywhere with you!" Rin told him.

"I wasn't exactly giving you a choice," Divine responded. "Now let's go!"

Just as Divine was about to grab hold of Rin's wrist, Yugo cried out and tackled him. The two of them ended up falling out the back of the van and onto the bridge. Jack and the others drove past the two fallen passengers just as they were getting to their feet.

"Well that was a bit foolish," Divine declared. "What did you hope to accomplish with that little move?"

"Just one thing," Yugo answered. "Getting you the hell away from Rin!"

Meanwhile back up ahead with the rest of the convoy, Anastasia had just summoned Alpha White Fang – Orion of the Frozen Axe to the field, even though they weren't facing any droid.

"Anastasia, what do you think you're doing?" Aki asked, realizing what the appearance of Anastasia's ace monster meant.

"What I must do," Anastasia answered. "To save the convoy, this bridge must be broken."

"Hold on! Yugo and Divine on that bridge right now!" Matsuri pointed out. "If you break it now…"

"There is no choice!" Anastasia declared. "The good of the whole group must come first!"

"Stirba!" Jack shouted.

"Nothing any of you say will stop me!" Anastasia declared. "Orion! Shatter this bridge and stop the path of our enemies!"

Orion swung his giant axe down onto the brown stone bridge just as the four D-Wheels made it to the end. Cracks instantly began to from and a second later the stone structure shattered to pieces. Yugo and Divine instantly began to sprint towards the oncoming droid hoard in an attempt to outrun the crumbling stone. On his way across, Divine tripped and the stone crumbled beneath him. The brown-haired psychic cried out as he fell into the canyon towards his doom.

Yugo kept on running, and when he reached the end of the bridge he made a jump for it. The crumbled to nothing just as Yugo had leapt into the air. Yugo managed to land on his feet but tumbled to the ground, causing him to hit the side of his head on a rock. The young turbo duelist was rendered unconscious. Back on the other side of the canyon, Rin and the others could only watch helplessly as the army of droids came towards Yugo.

"We have to go back for him!" Rin told the others.

"Rin, we can't!" Carly told her. "By the time we could get around the canyon, it'd be too late. Besides, there's no way we could take on that many droids."

"No. This… this can't be happening," Rin spoke as tears came to her eyes. "YUGO!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I apologize if this chapter wasn't exactly my best work. I'm sure it's actually fine, but there were a couple of parts that I felt like I could've done better. But then I am pretty critical of my own work at times. I suppose the reason I feel this way is because this was kind of a hard chapter to write, given how I had to end it. The next few chapters are going to be pretty rough for Rin and Yugo.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	21. Aten of Iliaster

**Author's Note:** I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter for their kind words. I'm glad it was to everyone's satisfaction. Anyway, get ready. We're about to have a major time skip.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 21: Aten of Iliaster

Two years had passed since the resistance had been forced to abandon Castle Arcadia and take refuge in the abandoned mines of Crash Town. During that time, Iliaster had started to spread across the world like a plague; taking over not only what little was left of Japan, but also invading other countries around the world. The conquests had begun almost a month after the resistance had escaped the castle, and had been thanks largely in part to a duelist who made himself known as Aten of Iliaster. Nobody knew just who this mysterious turbo duelist was, as he wore a helmet that completely covered his face. The one thing that people did know about Aten was that he was no droid, but a human who was part of the Iliaster collective.

Of course while Iliaster had managed to take over half the world thanks largely in part to their elite warrior, the resistance had grown as well. Other small resistance groups had formed around the world and had managed to get in contact with the group from Neo Domino. In time, a massive alliance dedicated to overthrowing Iliaster had formed. To that end, some of the resistance groups had sent forth several elite turbo duelists like the world-renowned Team Unicorn to join up with the Japan resistance group and in time retake Neo Domino, thus destroying the fountainhead of Iliaster. Unfortunately that task was proving to be impossible with a soldier like Aten leading Iliaster's forces.

While the goal of retaking Neo Domino seemed far out of reach, the Japan branch of the resistance had at least succeeded in turning the abandoned mines of Crash Town into a technologically sophisticated underground colony that was even greater than the one they originally had in Neo Domino. Saiga and Izzy had even managed to modify the cloaking device they had taken from Castle Arcadia to shield the energy of Rin's Pendulum Summoning method from Iliaster's detection, which allowed her to at least hone her abilities as a duelist. Of course while Rin's skills as a duelist had vastly improved, the last two years had been very hard on her. The only things she had left of Yugo were his deck and his D-Wheel, the latter of which she had since repaired and taken to using herself. The one thing that had kept Rin going during that whole time was the burning desire to go back into Neo Domino and get Yugo back.

It was late in the afternoon as Rin rode Yugo's D-Wheel around one of the base's three practice arenas in a duel against Anastasia. Rin had North Polar Bell and South Polar Bell in her Pendulum Zones, and Winter Bell and Tornado Bell on the field. Tornado Bell had just finished off the only two monsters that Anastasia had previously had out, leaving her open for a direct attack.

"Winter Bell! Attack Anastasia directly and end this duel!" Rin commanded. "Winter's Wrath!"

Winter Bell fired a barrage of icicles down towards Anastasia's D-Wheel that struck its rear wheel and took her life points to zero. With the duel at an end, the cards that Rin had out vanished and the Action Field that had been in play vanished with them, returning the inside of the drab grey indoor track to normal. Yet while the monsters had vanished, the icicles that had struck the rear wheel of Anastasia's ride had not. Six long icicles were sticking out of the rear tire, which had become flat and useless. At that moment, Aki and Matsuri emerged from the stadium's observation room and went over to inspect the damage.

"Holy crap!" Matsuri exclaimed. "The attack of Rin's monster actually caused real ice to form out of thin air. Guess she really does have psychic powers like us."

"And they're getting stronger," Aki added as she turned to look at Rin. "You're going to have to try hard to control these powers, Rin. Against a security droid, such a thing won't matter. But against a living, breathing opponent, your abilities could prove fatal."

Rin let out a sigh as she took off her helmet. "I hear you loud and clear. I still don't know how it is I have these powers, but I'll make sure to be careful with them."

"You know the fact that Rin is a psychic duelist like us is kind of infuriating, since it means that Divine was right about her," Matsuri remarked. "I mean all that stuff he said about aliens is total crap, but still."

"Strange powers or not, Ms. Rin's performance in this latest duel was amazing," a voice interjected.

Walking towards the four was a fairly young man with brown eyes and spiked black hair. He had on a blue and white riding suit with the logo of an orange unicorn head on the left side of his chest. This person was Jean, the strategist of the elite Team Unicorn.

"I hope you ladies don't mind me intruding, but I just had to see this duel after taking a look at Ms. Rin's most recent record," Jean continued. "Currently, her winning percentage puts her as one of the top five duelists at this base. Whether it's because of that unique Pendulum Summoning method of hers or something else, she's become one of the best duelists I've seen in a long time."

"I couldn't agree more," another voice interjected.

Walking up next to Jean was another young man with blue-green eyes, slightly long straight blonde hair, and a chin covered in stubble. The blonde had on the exact same riding suit as Jean. Rin and the others knew this man as Breo, the second member of Team Unicorn.

"You should be proud of yourself, Rin," Breo continued. "You know if you're tired of sparring with these other lovely ladies here, I'd be psyched to duel you."

"And I think I can speak for my entire team when I say we'd be proud to have you fight alongside us against Iliaster," Jean added.

"Thanks," Rin responded. "Um, have either of you see Crow?"

"Last I saw him, he was near the command center talking to Jack and Shinji," Breo answered.

"Thanks," Rin replied as she dismounted her D-Wheel. "I think I need to have a talk with him."

"I think I have a pretty good idea what Rin wants to talk to Crow about," Matsuri remarked with a sigh as Rin walked off. "This'll be like what, the thousandth time?"

"Something like that," Aki answered. "Shall we go with her for support?"

"Might as well. Not that it'll do any good," Matsuri replied. "You just know what Crow's going to say. Still, it'll give me a chance to talk to Shinji. I need him to help me 'adjust my furnace' again."

"Is that so?" Aki responded with a small smirk as they began to walk off with Anastasia, knowing full well what her little code phrase meant. "Seems like Shinji has been helping you with that furnace a lot lately."

"What can I say? He's really good at his job," Matsuri responded.

"Say, Aki. Hold up a minute," Breo spoke, causing the redhead to stop. "You know, I don't have to go back out on patrol tomorrow. If you're free too, what do you say to stopping by my quarters later tonight? I promise I'll show you a good time."

"I'll pass, thanks," Aki replied with a slight look of disgust before leaving with Matsuri.

"That guy does not give up, does he?" Matsuri whispered to Aki.

"No. It's starting to get on my nerves a little," Aki whispered back.

"I hear ya," Matsuri replied. "There's nothing worse than a guy who won't take a hint."

Anastasia hung back and grabbed Breo's right wrist, crushing it in a vice-like grip. "Hit on Mistress Aki again, and I will crush every single bone in your body into a fine powder. Is that clear?"

"Yeah… crystal," Breo answered as the pain in his wrist burned a path through his whole body.

Anastasia released her grip and followed after Aki and Matsuri.

"You really like to live dangerously, you know that?" Jean remarked. "You do know that those ladies could easily kill you with a thought if you crossed any of them, right?"

"I know that," Breo answered as he rubbed his throbbing wrist. "But there are some things in this world that are worth dying for."

* * *

Rin, Aki, Matsuri and Anastasia eventually found Crow in the corridor leading to the base's command center, talking over something with Shinji and Jack. Rin headed straight for the three with a determined look on her face, while the other three ladies followed a step behind.

Crow let out a heavy sigh as soon as he saw Rin coming. "Oh great! Here we go again."

"Crow! I need to talk to you," Rin spoke as she came up.

"I already know what you gonna say Rin, and the answer is still no," Crow told her. "Just like it was every other time you've asked me. You can't go into Neo Domino to look for Yugo."

"You two hold that thought," Matsuri interrupted before going up to Shinji and kissing him on the cheek. "Hey babe."

"Uh, hi Matsuri," Shinji replied as his cheeks turned bright red.

"If you've got a few minutes, I could use your help with the furnace in my quarters again," Matsuri told him. "The damn thing just keeps breaking down."

"Um, right now?" Shinji asked.

"Uh-huh. It's _really_ cold in my place right now," Matsuri told him.

"Well… okay. Sure," Shinji finally agreed as a goofy grin came to his face. "Anything I can do to help."

Matsuri took Shinji by the hand and led him off down the corridor. Jack watched the two as they left and rolled his eyes.

"Crow, I know I can get Yugo back!" Rin continued. "I've gotten a lot stronger than I was before."

"Look. First of all, we don't know where in Neo Domino Yugo is," Crow pointed out. "It's a big city. You could spend months searching the place and not find him. Second of all, it would be total suicide for you to go into Neo Domino on your own."

"Not if I'm right about the security droids," Rin told him. "You remember how they seemed to ignore me when Iliaster first took over Neo Domino, right? Well I'm positive that they'd ignore me again. I don't know why, but I think they've been programmed to leave me alone for some reason."

"The way those droids ignored you before could've been just a fluke," Crow pointed out. "And even if it wasn't it's too big of a risk to find out if you're right. Sending you into Neo Domino alone is just too big a risk."

"Then send me along with her," Jack spoke. "I can give Rin the protection you think she needs against those stupid tin cans."

"I can go with Rin too," Aki offered.

"I am willing to go with her as well," Anastasia added. "It's the least I can do since I am partially responsible for Yugo Sakaki being captured in the first place."

"No way! Out of the question," Crow told them. "You three are some of our best fighters. I can't let you risk going on this suicide mission just for the sake of one guy. Look, I care about Yugo a lot, but I have to think of what's good for the whole resistance. We'll get Yugo back when we take down Iliaster once and for all. I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do."

Seeing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with her argument, Rin stormed off down the corridor.

"Coward," Jack called Crow before storming off in the same direction as Rin.

Crow let out another heavy sigh. "I don't have time for this. I've got work to do."

With that, Crow walked off towards the command center. Aki and Anastasia merely looked at one another before heading elsewhere in the base.

* * *

As evening fell upon the base, an emergency meeting had suddenly been called in the command center. Crow was present for the meeting of course, as was Carly, who had since become the base's chief communications officer. Ushio, Sid, Saiga and Izzy were also in on the meeting, as were Shinji, Matsuri, Jack, Aki and Anastasia. Jean and Breo were also in attendance, as was another young man with gold eyes and spiked light-brown hair that was styled to look like it had a horn on the front. This young man was the leader of Team Unicorn, Andre.

"Okay, so what's this all about?" Crow asked.

"We got a message from the resistance base in China," Carly reported. "Their patrols found another large group of survivors, but they have no room for them at their location. They were hoping that we could take them in."

"Do we have the room?" Crow asked.

"For a group this size, we've got plenty," Saiga answered. "Luckily these mines go pretty deep. The problem is getting these people here."

"The coordinates for the rendezvous point are pretty far from here across some rough territory," Ushio reported. "Transporting them will require a pretty large convoy."

"And that convoy will need some guards. Great," Crow sarcastically replied. "How bad is Iliaster activity in that area?"

"It's actually pretty light," Sid answered. "But all it would take is for one reconnaissance droid to spot the convoy to bring down half of Iliaster's army on it."

"That problem might be solved," Izzy interjected. "This morning, Saiga and I finished making miniature versions of the cloaking device the base uses. We can put it on the convoy vehicles and make it harder for any droids to spot it. The cloak wouldn't be perfect, but it'd be better than nothing."

"It also wouldn't prevent that warrior, Aten from spotting the convoy," Saiga darkly added. "Unlike the recon droids that see things with sensors, Aten sees things with actual eyes."

"Yeah, but come on man. What're the chances of the convoy running into someone like Aten?" Izzy pointed out.

"It wouldn't be right to ignore all those refugees the Chinese base is sending over to us," Andre interjected. "After all, they're taking an even bigger risk coming all the way here."

"I should point out that the China branch is also sending some supplies with these survivors that we could really use," Carly added.

"What time are these survivors showing up?" Crow asked.

"They should be at the rendezvous point three days from now at about 7:00 AM," Carly answered.

"The trip there would take about a day and a half," Ushio added. "And it'll take just as long to get back. This won't be an easy one."

"Well then, we better get the convoy vehicles ready to meet with them," Crow decided. "Any ideas on an escape plan in the event we do run into a small army of droids?"

"I might have something in mind," Saiga answered.

"Okay then. Sid, you'll help supervise the convoy," Crow decided. "Izzy, you'll come with to provide tech support. As for guards, I think we'll send Jack, Aki, Shinji, Matsuri, and Team Unicorn."

"If I may be so bold, I think your friend Rin should come along to help guard the convoy as well," Jean suggested. "She is after all one of the strongest duelists at this base."

"And she has some pretty strong psychic powers like the lovely Ms. Aki here," Breo added.

"No way. Out of the question," Crow told them. "That would be too big of a risk. For one thing, that Pendulum Summoning method of hers was the reason why Iliaster attacked Castle Arcadia two years ago. The fact that they were drawn to that power probably means Rin's a target for them. If we brought Rin along on that mission, we'd practically be offering her up on a silver platter."

"Crow, we all know where you're coming from, but Rin can take care of herself," Aki told him. "Letting her help with this mission will at least ease her restlessness a bit."

"Rin's abilities as a duelist would be a big help to us on this mission," Jean added. "It would be unwise to keep her locked down here in this base."

"I gotta go with the others on this one, Crow," Ushio agreed. "I've seen some of Rin's recent duels, and she's become kind of a badass."

"My decision on this is final," Crow told them.

"Dammit birdbrain!" Jack cursed. "When the hell are you going to grow a spine? Your fear of taking risks is only going to keep holding us back!"

"Crow, you can't protect Rin forever," Shinji told him. "Having her help with this mission might at least help take her mind off Yugo for a while."

Crow gave a defeated sigh. "Okay, she can help guard the convoy. But I'm going to come with to make sure she's okay. Shinji, you and Matsuri will stay here and help guard the base."

"Not sure if I like being benched, but okay," Shinji replied.

"There's no need to be like that, Shinji," Matsuri told him as she took his hand. "After all, now that we don't have guard duty, our schedule if free for _other_ activities."

"Don't make me turn a hose on you two," Crow told them with a look of disgust. "Ushio, you and Saiga will be in charge of things will I'm gone. Now we don't have much time to get things ready, so let's get moving."

* * *

On the morning of departure for the convoy mission, Rin headed out with the others to meet with the passenger ship from China. She found that it was nice to finally get out of base after two years, but the mission of guard duty felt like a waste of time to her. Rin wanted to break away from the group and zoom off to Neo Domino to find Yugo, but she knew that Crow would try to stop her. Plus she had to admit that the task of guarding all those refugees was a bit more important. Rin tried her best to put her desire to rescue Yugo out of her mind and focus on the task at hand.

The convoy met up with the passenger ship on schedule, and once every single refugee was aboard a transport, they began the long trek back to the base. Their path took them across a vast and deserted wasteland that was silent expect for the occasional whoosh of a wind gust. Despite the silence though, every member of the convoy had to remain vigilant. They knew that a patrol of security droids could come upon them at any time. Until they could get back to the base, nobody could breath easy.

After about three and a half hours, the convoy had reached the halfway point of their journey. On their left was a large vast flat-toped hill, and a few feet ahead on their right was a vast canyon that had once been a fissure created by one of the meteor fragments that had decimated Japan back in 2012. As the convoy came neat the canyon, they suddenly heard the sound of an engine coming from the top of the hill. They all came to a halt to listen for if the sound of whatever they were hearing was coming closer. The sound was indeed getting nearer and nearer, and in seconds the convoy members saw a sleek silver D-Wheel zoom down the side of the hill, leaving a heavy cloud of dust in its wake as it came near.

The D-Wheel came to a stop right in front of the convoy, and it was then that the duelists that were on guard were able to get a good look at the rider. The figure was a man clad in a white riding suit with grey boots and gloves. Covering his upper torso he wore shining chrome armor with a large ring-like collar and a circular green gemstone on front. Two more pieces of armor adorned the rider's waist at the sides. His head was completely covered by a silver helmet with a black faceplate. Half of a green visor covered his right eye, while covering his left eye was a dark-grey eyepiece with an infinity symbol on it. Most of the duelists guarding the convoy went pale upon seeing the rider, for the instantly recognized who he was.

"I am Aten of Iliaster," the rider announced in a deep voice that was obviously being electronically distorted by his helmet. "You will surrender yourselves to us peacefully, or we shall be forced to use force to make you submit."

"Holy crap!" Breo exclaimed. "It really is him!"

"Dammit!" Andre cursed. "Of all the rotten luck! What the hell is a soldier like Aten even doing here anyway?"

"It could be that Iliaster somehow picked up the transmission about the passenger ship and sent Aten to intercept us," Jean reasoned. "Of course in the end, why he's here doesn't really matter. Unless we can get past Aten, we're finished."

"So which of us should take him on?" Andre asked.

"I'll do it," Rin offered. "My Pendulum Summoning method might knock him off balance."

"I admire your boldness, Rin. But I'll be the one to face Aten," Jack declared. "No matter who this person is under that mask, in the end he's no different than this pathetic security droids. None of those tin cans have chance against my power."

"Maybe we should all take him on," Aki suggested. "He may not do too well against all of us in a Battle Royale."

"That's not a bad idea," Jean responded. "Of course other groups in the past have tried that same thing against Aten and failed miserably."

Before the debate could get any further, Crow drove towards Aten before anyone could stop him. The redheaded duelist stopped directly in front of Aten's D-Wheel.

"I'm taking you on, Aten!" Crow declared. "This convoy is my responsibility, so I'll take the risk to face you in order to keep it safe!"

"Very well, Crow Hogan," Aten agreed. "Your defeat would greatly weaken the resistance, allowing us to neutralize it that much quicker."

"Hey. How do you know my name?" Crow asked.

Aten said nothing and merely zoomed off towards the canyon.

"I'll handle this! The rest of you just keep going until you get to the base!" Crow ordered before taking off after Aten.

"Rin, let's go after Crow in case he needs help!" Aki decided. "Jack, you and Team Unicorn look after the convoy!"

"Don't order me around!" Jack snapped, but Aki and Rin rode off before they could hear him.

Up ahead, Aten pressed a button on the consul of his D-Wheel. "Action Field on! Crossover Accel!"

In an instant, the color of the wasteland took on a different hue, and an explosion of white light in the sky above spread Action cards over the land as Crow and Aten passed by a large bolder. Aten sped up took a left around the boulder towards the canyon with Crow following close behind. Moments later, Rin and Aki managed to catch up to the two.

"The first turn is ours!" Aten declared. "I set one monster on the field and end my turn!"

A large facedown card materialized next to Aten's silvery D-Wheel. Forming on top of the card was a glowing purple ball with two red eyes cradled in a black cage lined with silver thorns.

Crow drew his first card. "First I set two cards on the field. Then I summon Blackwing – Jetstream the Blue Sky in Attack Mode!"

Materializing near Crow's D-Wheel was a large bird with a light-blue body and blue and black wings. It had a head of long red feathers, with long black feathers covering his its eyes.

"Because I have a Blackwing on the field, I special summon the Tuner monster, Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind!"

Appearing next to Jetstream was a bipedal bird-like creature with a body covered in black feathers. It had wings instead of arms, and around its neck was an arrangement of thick white feathers. Much of its head was green, with the feathers on the sides forming large wings. It had large eyes, and a yellow face that seemed to show neither a nose nor a mouth.

"I tune the level three Gale into the level one Jetstream for a level four Synchro Summon!" Crow announced.

Gale flapped his wings before flashing orange and changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Jetstream and transformed the bird into a single white star.

"Flap your jet-black wings, and spread the chill of winter across the land!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Strike! Assault Blackwing – Naginata the Morning Frost!"

The star flashed and became a twister of freezing wind, subsiding moments later to reveal a bipedal bird covered in black feathers. His face had a large yellow beak, and above his steel-grey eyes was a pair of bushy eyebrows made of light-blue feathers. On his head was a dark-blue samurai helmet with ice-blue trim and gold crest on the front in the shape of a snowflake. Dark-blue samurai armor complete with skirt covered the bird warrior's torso, with the top half of the chest plate covered in a thick layer of frost. With his right wing, the samurai bird carried a long dark-blue pole with a curved silver blade at the top like the head of a spear.

"I don't know what that face-down monster of yours is, but Naginata's 2100 ATK should be enough to finish it off!" Crow declared. "Naginata, attack Aten's monster! Piercing Winter Strike!"

Naginata flew across the field with his weapon pointed at Aten's monster. As the samurai bird came near, Aten's monster took on its true form. The creature was a large silvery mechanical worm with black trim at each end of its body segments. In place of a face, its head had a window in the shape of an infinity symbol that showed a ball of green light inside. Right above the window was a small round red electric eye. Naginata cut the robotic worm down the middle with the blade of his weapon, and both halves exploded with a blast of fire and smoke.

"The monster you attacked was Meklord Sentinel – Virus Worm," Aten announced. "When Virus Worm is flipped face-up, my opponent is forced to send five monsters from their Extra Deck to the Graveyard!"

"Dammit!" Crow cursed as five random monster cards popped out of the Extra Deck slot of his D-Wheel. "That was a cheap shot, and one you're about to pay for! When Naginata destroys a monster, my opponent takes 400 points of damage for each set card on the field! I have two face-down cards out right now, which means you take 800 points of damage!"

Naginata slashed the blade of his weapon through the air and sent a blade of blue energy across the field towards Aten. Up ahead, Aten spotted an Action Card inside a multicolored bubbled on his left and sped up to reach it. Rin couldn't help but find the style with which Aten snagged the card to be familiar.

"I activate the Action Card, Acceleration!" Aten announced. "This card negates the damage from Naginata's effect!"

Right as the energy blade was about to strike its target, Aten's D-Wheel suddenly sped up with a burst of acceleration. The projectile soon lost speed and crashed into the ground. Aten kept going and began to drive close to the edge of the canyon. Crow sped up to follow, but kept to the left a wide distance away from his opponent. Aki and Rin followed after Crow a short distance away. From where the two women were, they could see why Aten was driving so close to the canyon's edge. The whole cliff seemed to be lined with Action Cards.

"Aten is playing a pretty dangerous game," Aki remarked. "A strong enough direct attack from one of Crow's monsters could send him falling into the canyon's edge."

"Aki, there's something very strange about Aten," Rin told her.

"It's probably because he's human and not a droid," Aki assumed.

"No. It's more than that," Rin told her. "It's something about the way he duels."

"Guess I end my turn," Crow announced.

Aten drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Imperial Sacrifice! By sending three Meklord Emperors from my hand or deck to the Graveyard, I can add a Meklord Sentinel monster to my hand. I send Meklord Emperors Wisel, Skiel and Granel from my deck to the Graveyard! Next, I now banish Granel, Skiel and Wisel to special summon the strongest monster at our command! Activate, Meklord Sentinel – Prime Matrix Dragon!"

The sky above darkened with clouds, and a portal of green light opened up on the ground on Aten's left. Rising out of the portal were three balls of light, one white, one blue and one yellow. As the portal closed behind them, the balls of light rose high into the air and vanished in the dark clouds. Soon after, an explosion of white light went off in the sky with a deafening clap of thunder. The dark clouds instantly parted, and a new monster descended to the field.

The monster in question was a large mechanical dragon, with a silvery head that had a large gold three-pointed crest with a round green jewel at the center, and visor with a black screen that showed a single red eye that went back and forth. The robot dragon's spherical upper torso was colored gold and had a window on the front in the shape of an infinity symbol that showed a ball of red light on the inside. The lower half of its torso was dark-brown and had three circles on the front that were arranged like a triangle and colored white, blue and yellow. On its back was a large pair of chrome V-shaped wings, and it had a pair of long silver arms that each ended with a set of gold blade-like pincers. The dragon's lower half was a long tail covered with segments of armor that alternated in a pattern of chrome and black.

"Prime Matrix Dragon gains 500 ATK for each Synchro Monster on the field," Aten announced. "Because you control a Synchro Monster, his ATK rises from 3000 to 3500. I activate one of Prime Matrix Dragon's effects! Once per turn, I can equip Prime Matrix Dragon with a Synchro Monster from my opponent's field or Graveyard. From the Graveyard, we equip Prime Matrix with Assault Blackwing – Chidori the Rain Sprinkling!"

A black misty portal suddenly opened up in the ground near a point where Crow's D-Wheel had just past. Prime Matrix Dragon's chest opened up and fired cables of red energy into the portal. The cables pulled Crow's fallen Blackwing monster from the portal and converted it into a red energy that was pulled into Prime Matrix Dragon's chest. Meanwhile, Aten grabbed another Action Card on his right near the canyon's edge.

"Prime Matrix Dragon gains the ATK of each Synchro Monster equipped to it," Aten announced. "Currently, its ATK is now at 6100, more than enough to deplete your life points. We attack Naginata with Prime Matrix! Iliaster Sanction!"

"I activate my Trap! Blackwing Assault Haze!" Crow announced. "If one of my Blackwing monsters is attacked, this card negates it!"

Prime Matrix opened its metal jaws and fired a massive beam of red light down at Crow's monster. Before the attack could reach its target though, a thick cloud of black smoke appeared around Naginata.

"That's not all!" Crow continued. "If the monster being attacked was an Assault Blackwing, my opponent takes damage equal to that monster's DEF!"

The beam attack from Prime Matrix struck the cloud, causing the black fog to disperse. Before the cloud completely broke apart though, Naginata flew out of it and charged across the field towards Aten. The samurai bird slashed Aten across the back, causing his D-Wheel to wobble and his life points to fall to 3000.

"An excellent tactic," Aten praised. "However just as Prime Matrix Dragon attacked, I activated the Action Spell, Brutality, which allows it to attack twice during this turn. Once more, we attack Naginata with Prime Matrix! Iliaster Sanction!"

"In that case, I activate my other Trap! Mocking Blackwing!" Crow announced. "When I have a Blackwing monster on the field, Mocking Blackwing lets me banish another Trap card from my Graveyard and reuse its effect! I use Mocking Blackwing to copy the effect of Assault Blackwing Haze!"

Another cloud of black smoke formed around Naginata just as the beam attack from Prime Matrix was about to hit. The beam struck the cloud, causing it to disperse. But right before the cloud totally broke apart, Naginata leapt out of it and flew towards Aten. As the bird warrior came in striking distance, Aten quickly grabbed another Action Card that he saw coming up on his right.

"I activate the Action Card, Acceleration!" Aten announced. "This card cancels the damage from Blackwing Assault Haze!"

Just as Naginata was about to slash his weapon across Aten's back, the Iliaster duelist's D-Wheel sped up with a burst of acceleration that caused the bird samurai to cut into nothing but thin air.

"It is useless to use the same tactic on us twice," Aten declared. "I shall set one card on the field and end my turn, and with the end of the turn I activate another one of Prime Matrix Dragon's effects. During the end of the turn, I can summon a Synchro Monster equipped to Prime Matrix to my field."

The chest of Prime Matrix Dragon opened up and a ball of red light flew out. The light soon changed into Assault Blackwing – Chidori, but in a different form. Covering the bird warrior's eyes was a chrome visor with a black screen that showed a red eye going back and forth. Covering his chest was a thick piece of chrome armor with a window on the front in the shape of an infinity symbol that showed a ball of green light inside.

"While Prime Matrix Dragon is on the field, all other monsters I control are treated as Machine-Type Meklord monsters," Aten revealed. "Furthermore, because two Synchro monsters are now present on the field, the ATK of Prime Matrix Dragon is now at 4000."

Crow drew his next card. "I summon Blackwing – Bora the Spear in Attack Mode!"

Crow's lance-wielding bird warrior appeared on the field next to Naginata.

"Since Naginata was summoned using Blackwing monsters, he's treated as a Tuner while on the field!" Crow announced. "I tune the level four Naginata into the level four Bora for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Naginata twirled his weapon above his head a few times before changing into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Bora and transformed him into four white stars.

"The ebony flames become the wings of resolved home that rise from the ashes of despair!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Soar, Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon!"

The stars flashed and ignited into a horizontal column of black flames that expanded outward and burned away moments later to reveal Crow's bird-headed dragon.

"Now I activate the Spell card, Phoenix Tuning!" Crow announced. "By banishing a Blackwing Tuner and non-Tuner from my Graveyard, I can use them as material for another Synchro Summon! I banish the level three Gale the Whirlwind and the level four Bora the Spear to use them for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Ghostly images of Gale and Bora appeared in the air above Crow's D-Wheel. Gale's body flashed orange and transformed into three green rings of light. The rings soon encircled the phantom Bora and changed him into four white stars.

"Spread your jet-black wings, and storm forth in tandem with the roaring thunder! Slash apart the lightning!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Cascade, Assault Blackwing – Raikiri the Rain Shower!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of white light that soon faded to reveal a warrior clad in a purple bird-like costume. On his head was a mask with a long dark-yellow beak and large blue and red eyes. The left side of the warrior's chest was clad in purple armor with a section of light-green trim, while both arms were covered in purple armor. Long curved light-green spikes projected from the armor covering both of the warrior's shoulders as well as his left arm. A large black cloth with white fringe hung from the back of the bird warrior's waist. The warrior's hands and feet were yellow talons, and he had a right leg covered in purple armor. On his back was a large pair of wings, with the left wing covered in purple feathers while the right wing was totally metal and made mostly of long silver blades. In his right hand, the bird warrior carried a long sword.

"Your tactics are counterproductive," Aten remarked. "Because there are now three Synchro Monsters on the field, the ATK of Prime Matrix Dragon is now at 4500."

"That doesn't matter, because I activate another effect of Naginata the Morning Frost that I can only use once per duel!" Crow announced. "By banishing Naginata from the Graveyard, all of my Blackwing and Black-Winged Dragon Synchro Monster can attack directly this turn!"

A ghostly version of Naginata appeared in the sky and twirled his weapon above his head before exploding into blue lights that rained down onto Crow's two monsters. Black-Winged Dragon and Raikiri both began to give off a deep blue aura.

"Crow! Wait a minute!" Aki interrupted as she and Rin drove closer. "Aten may be part of Iliaster, but he's still human! If you attack him directly, you could send him into the canyon!"

"I know, but… if I can take this guy out, we'll have a much better shot at taking down Iliaster," Crow pointed out. "I have to look at the big picture here, Aki. Besides, this guy is playing for keeps. I have no choice but to finish him right here! Raikiri, attack him directly!"

Raikiri flew across the field past Aten's two monsters and struck the top of the Iliaster duelist's helmet with his sword. Aten's life points dropped to a mere 400 and his helmet suddenly shattered apart. The eyepiece that had been over Aten's left eye remained, and it was revealed that it extended to also cover his left ear. The rest Aten's face though had been totally revealed, and Crow and the others could now see that he had a head of blue hair with a large all too familiar yellow swirl at the front. Aten looked at the three with a totally blank expression, and when he did, there was no longer any doubt about who Aten really was. It was Yugo.

"No… no way," a totally stunned Crow spoke. "All this time… the guy who helped Iliaster conquer half the planet… has been Yugo?"

"Yugo!" a horrified Rin called out. "That's… really you, isn't it? Well if it is, you have to stop this right now!"

Aten's expression remained cold. "I am Aten of Iliaster. The one you know as Yugo Sakaki is nothing more than a component in our collective."

"Crow, you can't attack him now!" Aki told him. "A direct attack from your dragon could kill him!"

"It would be far easier if you ended your turn now and surrendered," Aten told Crow. "Once this duel has ended, we shall attack your convoy and add its passengers to our collective, just as we shall do to you. Your lives as you have known them have now come to an end. From this time forward, you will service us."

With so many lives at stake, Crow had no other option left to him but one. "Black-Winged Dragon… attack Aten directly!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The screen fades to black, and the message "To Be Continued" appears in big blue letters. For those who may not be aware, I basically tried to mirror the end of this chapter to the ending of the classic _Star Trek TNG_ classic, _The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1_. I even watched that epic again a couple of days ago to get an idea for how to handle Aten/Yugo's dialogue at the end.

So some of you reading may be wondering how I came up with the name for Yugo's dark alter ego. It's actually the name of another sun god that was worshipped in Ancient Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten, father of the pharaoh who would later be known to the world as King Tut. Akhenaten basically tried to abolish the existing mythology of Egypt and force the worship of Aten, the sun disk as the one true religion of the kingdom; banning the worship of all the previously existing gods. Of course after Akhenaten's death, the Egyptians went back to the old system of mythology. At the time, I felt the use of Aten as the name for Yugo's Iliaster persona could sort of symbolize Iliaster trying to impose its own order on the world just as Akhenaten once tried to impose his own religion on his kingdom.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	22. Determined Rescue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 22: Determined Rescue

Black-Winged Dragon opened his beak and spewed out a stream of black flames down at Aten. Before the attack could hit its target though, Prime Matrix Dragon let out a mechanical roar and fired a beam of green light from the gem embedded in the three-pointed crest on its head. The beam blocked the ebony fire stream and scattered it to nothing. Soon after, Prime Matrix Dragon's chest opened up and fired red energy cables that snared Crow's dragon. Black-Winged Dragon struggled in vein as he transformed into a ball of red energy and pulled into Aten's monster.

Crow was absolutely stunned. "What the… what the hell just happened?"

"We activated our Trap, Matrix Capture," Aten explained. "When a Synchro Monster declares an attack while a Meklord is on the field, Matrix Capture negates the attack and allows a Melord Emperor or Prime Matrix Dragon to use its effect to equip itself with the attacking monster. And now, because Prime Matrix Dragon has been equipped with Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon, its ATK is now at 6800."

"Dammit!" Crow cursed as he slammed his D-Wheel with the side of his fist. "I nearly had him!"

"The knowledge of Yugo Sakaki is part of us now," Aten told him. "It has prepared us for every conceivable tactic that you or your fellow resistance fighters might use. Your resistance is hopeless."

"What now?" Rin asked.

"It doesn't look good," Aki told her. "I think Crow's run out of moves."

"I… I end my turn," Crow announced.

"We shall make this quick," Aten declared as he drew his next card. "I attack Assault Blackwing – Raikiri with Assault Blackwing – Chidori!"

The cybernetic bird warrior flew across the battlefield and attacked Raikiri with his sword. Raikiri blocked the attack with his own blade and slashed Chidori across the chest. Sparks of electricity began to flare from the giant gash that had been cut into Chidori's chest, but the cybernetic bird warrior recovered and managed to stab Raikiri through the chest. Chidori then exploded in a blast of fire and smoke that took out both monsters.

"Prime Matrix Dragon, attack him directly!" Aten commanded. "Iliaster Sanction!"

Prime Matrix Dragon fired a beam of red energy from his mechanical jaws down at Crow. The blast struck the side of Crow's D-Wheel, flinging the motorcycle into the air and taking his life points to zero. Crow was hurled from his D-Wheel and hit the ground on his side, tumbling towards near where Aki and Rin were. His D-Wheel meanwhile crashed to a spot on the ground a few feet away, nose-first, and toppled forward to hit the ground upside-down before rolling on its side. By some good fortune, the D-Wheel failed to explode on impact.

With the duel at an end, Prime Matrix Dragon vanished and the surrounding area returned to normal. Aki and Rin stopped their D-Wheels near where Crow was and went over to check on him. Crow was unconscious and seemed to have a broken arm. If there were any other injuries, the girls couldn't tell. The one thing they were sure of is that they needed to get Crow some medical attention as soon as they could.

"Aki Izayoi!" Aten spoke. "You will be left alone for the time being. Our primary objective for now is to capture and assimilate the convoy that you and Crow Hogan were guarding. An army of security droids is moving in on the convoy as we speak. We shall now depart to supervise the operation. For your own sake, you should remain here and wait to be assimilated voluntarily."

"What about me, Yugo?" Rin asked as she got to her feet. "Aren't you going to try and assimilate me too?"

"Rin Akaba… the collective… has much different intentions towards you," Aten responded. "However, you should remain here so that you can be escorted to the capital in Neo Domino City to speak with the director. That is all."

With that, Aten began to dive off towards the convoy. As he left, Aki pulled a small odd-looking silver gun from a holster on her D-Wheel and fired it at Aten. The projectile struck the rear end of Aten's D-Wheel and a small yellow light on the back of it began to blink.

"So… what now?" Rin asked.

"Right now we need to worry about getting Crow and ourselves out of here," Aki answered. "Try and find something we can use to splint Crow's arm while I get in touch with the others."

* * *

Izzy was driving the truck leading the convoy, with Sid sitting in the passenger seat. The former security officer didn't like spending the mission inside the truck instead of on his D-Wheel. There was nothing for him to do except look out through the window at the vast wasteland or at the odd edition that Izzy had made to the dashboard at some point before the convoy had shipped out; a large round red button with the phrase, "In Case of Emergency" painted on it in white letters. Izzy had been very tight-lipped about what the button did, and told Sid repeatedly not to push it. Sid continued to look out the window for something interesting to take his mind off the mission and the mystery button and ended up getting far more than he bargained for.

Sid spotted a large shining mass of chrome objects on the horizon that was quickly moving towards them. He knew in an instant that it was an army of security droids. Izzy spotted them at the same time that Sid did.

"Crap!" Sid exclaimed. "We are so screwed! This is probably bigger than the army that came after us at Arcadia Castle."

 _"Izzy! Sid! Come in!"_ Aki's voice spoke over the truck's radio. _"Aten defeated Crow! He's hurt! Aten is heading for your location along with an army of droids!"_

"We see 'em, Aki," Izzy responded over the radio. "Iliaster is definitely not screwing around this time. Looks like we're gonna have to go with Plan Copperfield. You and Rin better book it to Destination B with Crow."

 _"Roger! We'll be there as soon as we can,"_ Aki responded.

Izzy changed the frequency of the radio. "Jack! Andre! Breo! Jean! We're about to execute Plan Copperfield! Break away and head for Destination B at once!"

 _"Roger that,"_ Andre's voice responded.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Sid asked. "What's plan Copperfield?"

"Copperfield, as in the guy who made the Statue of Liberty in America disappear that one time," Izzy explained. "You know that red button I told you not to press?"

"Yeah?" Sid answered with a raised eyebrow.

"Well press it, man," Izzy told him. "I know you've wanted to this whole trip."

Sid shrugged and pressed the forbidden red button. As soon as he did, he heard a humming noise inside the truck that quickly got louder and louder. Suddenly the cab of the truck was filled by a blinding green light.

* * *

Aten arrived at the convoy to find the trucks totally motionless. Jack and Team Unicorn were nowhere to be seen. Perplexed, Aten pulled up next to the lead truck and dismounted right as the army of droids descended upon the convoy like locusts. Aten looked in the cab of the truck to find it totally empty. The collective began to wonder if perhaps the drivers had abandoned their vehicles in order to save themselves.

Going around to the back, Aten opened the doors of the truck to find the inside completely empty. Some of the droids had dismounted their D-Wheels to investigate the other trucks to find them totally empty as well. The collective was at a total loss as to how the people of the convoy were able to totally vanish. With no clues as to where the survivors and their escorts could've gone, and with Aki and Rin likely to have escaped with Crow, Aten and the droids were directed to return to Neo Domino.

* * *

Rin drove after Aki across the wasteland along a route that was not the one the convoy had been taking. A still unconscious Crow was riding on the back of Aki's D-Wheel. They of course had to leave Crow's D-Wheel behind but had managed to salvage his deck. During the trip, Rin's mind was going over and over the final moments of Crow's duel with Aten, and the horrid revelation of Aten's true identity. Never in her wildest nightmares did Rin expect Aten to be Yugo. She knew that Yugo had to have been assimilated into the Iliaster collective after his capture, but she never imagined that they would turn him into the warrior responsible for helping Iliaster conquer over half the world.

Eventually Aki and Rin arrived at the site of a small cave of tan stone. The two of them pulled into the mouth of the cave to find a metal wall with a reinforced steel door, along with the parked D-Wheels of Jack and Team Unicorn. Aki dismounted – gently allowing the still comatose Crow to slide forward onto her D-Wheel as she did so – and went over to the door. After pressing a few buttons on the keypad net to the door, it slid open on its own. Izzy emerged from the door as soon as it opened up.

"Glad you ladies could make it," Izzy spoke. "How's Crow?"

"Pretty banged up," Aki answered. "We better get him looked at."

As Aki and Rin went through the door moments later, Izzy sent a couple of the people inside to go get Crow. Beyond the door, Rin found that the vast cave beyond was set up with several cots, a few crates of provisions, and a few pieces of electronic equipment that had been set up in the far corner. All of the survivors from the convoy were present inside the cave.

"What is this place?" Rin asked as she looked around.

"An emergency shelter that Saiga and I set up here about a year ago in case our primary base somehow got taken over," Izzy explained. "Remember the teleportation devices that were in Castle Arcadia? I found the blueprints for them in that little creep, Mortimer's lab. Saiga and I were able to build a few for the main base and this shelter. As it happened, the convoy route took us pretty near where this shelter is. So I had the idea to set up multiple teleporters inside the trucks. That way if Iliaster sent a massive army after us, like they just did, we could just beam over here and wait for the base to send some new transports for us along an alternate route."

"Have you contacted the base yet?" Aki asked.

"Yep. I got in touch with Carly over the scrambled channel," Izzy answered. "As we speak, Ushio and Anastasia are on their way to get us. They should be here by the middle of tomorrow."

"How come I wasn't told about any of this?" Rin asked sounding a little offended.

"Don't feel bad, Akaba," Sid spoke as he walked up with Jack and the members of Team Unicorn. "I didn't know about this either."

"Not even Crow knew," Izzy revealed. "He knew we had an emergency plan, but he didn't know any of the details. The only ones who knew any specifics were Aki, Jack, all of Team Unicorn, and of course yours truly. That way there was much less of a chance Iliaster learning about this plan in case they managed to capture or assimilate anyone from the convoy."

"The important thing is that the survivors and supplies we were transporting are all safe," Jean pointed out.

"So I guess Crow got beaten by Aten pretty badly," Andre assumed.

"Yeah, but that's not all," Aki told them. "Aten is actually Yugo."

"Wait! As in Yugo Sakaki?" a stunned Izzy asked.

"Son of a bitch…" an equally stunned Sid exclaimed.

"I think this is the last thing any of us expected," Aki declared.

"If Aten really is this Yugo Sakaki you've told us about in the past, that would probably explain why he's so strong," Jean assumed. "Even though his mind is being controlled by Iliaster, his duelist instincts must still be active."

"And from what you've told us about Yugo, he seems to be one of the strongest duelists of this generation," Andre assumed. "It's no wonder Iliaster has been able to take over so much of the world with Aten's help."

"Damn you, Goodwin!" Jack cursed. "I'll strangle him for turning one of the only to rivals I've had into his damn puppet!"

"So what's our next move?" Breo asked.

"Right now, all we can do is wait for Ushio and the others to get here," Aki answered. "The safety of the survivors has to come first right now."

* * *

Rin was lying wide-awake on her cot in the shelter looking up at the ceiling. Her mind was swirling with thoughts of Yugo. There wasn't a day that went by where Rin hadn't wondered about just what Iliaster had done to her lost childhood friend, but now that she did know what had happened to Yugo, she wish that she was still in the dark about his fate. It practically crushed her to see the person she cared about most twisted into a tool for Iliaster's conquest of the world. What was worse that Yugo was still in Iliaster's clutches.

The horrid revelation that Yugo was Aten was the absolute last straw for Rin. She had decided that she was going to go out and get him back whether she had permission from anyone or not. As quietly as she could, Rin packed a small bag of previsions for herself and headed for the shelter door. She was glad that most of the survivors they had been transporting were asleep. As for Sid, Izzy and the others, as far as Rin knew, they were busy discussing something in the small war room that had been set up inside the shelter.

Rin opened the heavy shelter door as quietly as she could, trying not to wake anyone. It seemed as though she was home free, but when she got into the outer mouth of the cave she saw Aki and Jack waiting by her D-Wheel.

"I had a feeling you were going to try something like this," Aki spoke.

"Don't try and stop me, Aki," Rin told her. "I can't let Iliaster keep using Yugo like this."

"I know," Aki told her. "That's why I thought you should have this."

Aki suddenly tossed a small black box-like device towards Rin. The box had a small control panel and a screen with a yellow grid on it.

"What's this?" Rin asked.

"The receiver for a tracking device I managed to plant on Aten's D-Wheel," Aki answered. "The range is a bit limited, but it should take you right to him. Chances are you'll find him in Neo Domino."

"Thanks," Rin replied as she put the device in her pocket.

"This is something you should've done ages ago, Rin," Jack told her. "Make sure to bring Yugo back! He and I still have a score to settle, and I can't do that while he's Goodwin's puppet."

"Don't worry. I'll bring Yugo back one way or another," Rin assured him.

"Good luck Rin. And be careful," Aki told her.

With that, Aki and Jack headed back into the shelter. Rin mounted the D-Wheel that she had inherited from Yugo and revved the engine. In moments, she was out of the cave and zooming across the wasteland in the direction of Neo Domino. Rin pulled out the tracker to check the screen and saw no signal from Aten. Of course that didn't surprise her, since he was probably far out of range. As she drove across the barren land under the light of the full moon, she realized that Jack had been right about one thing; she should've gone to save Yugo much sooner. Now that she finally was on her way to save him, she was determined not to let anything stop her.

* * *

As Rin's trek across the wasteland continued, she was totally unaware that two figures on D-Wheels were watching her from the crest of a nearby hill. One of them was a woman with long blond hair wearing a white and red riding suit with charcoal-colored pads on her chest and shoulders. She had on a red helmet with an orange visor and a grey mouth guard resembling the visor of a knight's helmet. Her D-Wheel was white and red, resembling a horse. Both ends of the woman's D-Wheel had an ornate flame-shaped blade.

The other figure watching Rin was a man wearing a cobalt-colored riding suit with a blue helmet and deep red goggles that totally concealed the top half of his face. His D-Wheel was a long pointed purple vehicle with a single wheel on the rear end.

"Well, looks like our little Ms. Akaba has finally struck out on her own," the woman observed. "I'm kind of surprised it took her this long."

"I imagine the resistance was a tad overprotective of her," the man assumed. "In fact I'm surprised they let her out into the field for that convoy mission."

"Whatever the reason they decided to let her out of that base, we need to keep a close eye on her," the woman told him. "We've screwed up this mission enough as it is, what with letting the Sakaki kid get captured by Iliaster."

"And in letting that happen, we allowed Iliaster to spread beyond the boundaries of Japan," the man added.

"Way to rub it in," the woman responded. "You think Rin will be able to take down Aten?"

"Unknown with the current data available," the man answered. "One thing is certain though. We cannot let Rin Akaba fall into Iliaster's hands."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone reading enjoyed this latest chapter. I know it was quite a bit shorter than the last one, but it couldn't be helped. Incidentally, Aten's dialogue was based on dialogue from the beginning of the _Star Trek TNG_ classic, _The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2_. Anyway, the really hard part was figuring out how the convoy was going to escape being captured. I'd like to think I was pretty clever in coming up with the solution.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	23. Worlds Apart

**Author's Note:** Originally, the title of this chapter was going to be, _Confrontation_. On Monday morning though, the day before I started writing this chapter, I went on a little spur of the moment shopping trip out of town and kept hearing Journey songs on my car radio. One of those songs was their iconic hit, _Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)_ , and it occurred to me to use part of that song's title for this chapter. It seemed especially appropriate since I've associated the music of Journey with 5D's, and by extension the Synchro Dimension of ARC-V.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 23: "Worlds Apart"

The sun had only just risen over the horizon as Rin finally entered the city limits of Neo Domino. It had taken her almost a week to reach the city from the shelter. Halfway through her journey she had wondered if she had packed enough provisions for the trip, but as fortune had it she had managed to reach her destination just before running out of supplies. Upon entering the city, Rin pulled out the tracker that Aki had given her before leaving. The device was giving off a strong signal, which meant that Yugo was somewhere in the city.

Rin took a long look at the mechanized metropolis as she drove through the city's ground level. There was absolutely nothing of the Commons that she recognized, and even parts of the Tops had been altered with new buildings constructed in the same cold mechanical architecture as the buildings dominating the city's lower level. It seemed that Iliaster's transformation of Neo Domino had continued on during the two years since the resistance had fled to the wasteland. The only thing about the city that was the same when Rin and the others left were the strange green pulses of light that were occasionally shot into the sky from the pyramid in the heart of the city. Rin could see those light pulses firing into the air even from where she was.

As Rin followed the signal of the tracking device, she could see the people of the city out walking the streets. They were just the same as they were before. All of them wearing white with blank expressions on their faces; each of those poor souls living out the mechanized imitation of a normal daily life while trapped in the collective consciousness of Iliaster. Rin did her best to ignore those people and focused on following the signal of the tracker. There was nothing she could do for any of them at the moment. The best she could do was save Yugo and come back for the others later.

After turning a corner, Rin suddenly heard the all too familiar noise of sirens coming up from ahead. She looked up from the tracker and saw a pair of security droids on D-Wheels approaching. Rin came to a stop and waited to see what the droids would do. The smarter thing would've been to make a run for it, but a darker curiosity in her wanted to find out if the droids would ignore her like that other pair did during the takeover of the city. Both droids came to a complete stop and dismounted their D-Wheels and walked up to her.

Rin got ready to rev the engine and make a break for it if the droids got too close, but when they came near the front wheel of her vehicle they stopped. The green-haired girl watched them closely, trying to study their red moving eyes as they stood like statues. Rin suddenly noticed that they could hear a soft beeping noise coming from each of them. It was almost as if the machines were trying to figure out what to do with her.

"Rin Akaba," one of the droids finally spoke in its flat mechanical voice. "You may relax. We do not wish to assimilate you into our collective. However, the Director wishes to speak with you. These units will escort you to the citadel."

"…Wait!" Rin spoke as the droids headed back for their D-Wheels. "I want to talk to Yugo… the one you call Aten. I'm not going any citadel until I see him."

The droids froze, and once again Rin could hear them giving off the same strange beeping noise from before.

"Very well," the same droid from before finally responded. "These units will take you to see Emissary Aten. After your conversation is finished, they will escort you to the Director."

With that, the two droids mounted their D-Wheels and drove off at a slow speed. Rin decided that it would be in her best interests to play along at least for the time being. Within moments the three left the ground level of the city and were on the highway. Rin looked at the tracker and saw that they were moving towards Aten's current position. Clearly the droids weren't lying to her, but she could not figure out why they were giving her such special treatment.

Rin drove up closer to the two droids to try and speak with them. "Um, can I ask you guys a few questions?"

"Affirmative," one of the droids answered.

"Okay. So this director you keep talking about, is his name Rex Goodwin?" Rin asked.

"Affirmative," the same droid responded. "Rex Goodwin is the founder and heart of the Iliaster collective."

The droid's answer seemed to confirm Jack's story about Goodwin being the one who started Iliaster. She then wondered what might happen to the collective if Rex was somehow taken out. Unfortunately, Rin wasn't sure if she could defeat Rex in a duel, as she knew practically nothing about him.

Rin put the idea of facing Rex Goodwin out of her mind and asked her other burning question. "So how come you guys aren't going to assimilate me into your collective?"

At this, the droids began to once again make the odd beeping noise that indicated they were trying to think. It seemed that her question was a bit difficult for them.

"A detailed answer to your query can only be obtained from the director," one of the droids finally responded. "These units can tell you however that the reason you are not to be assimilated is because you are the daughter of Leo Akaba."

A chill went down Rin's spine upon hearing the droid's answer. "My… my father? What does he have to do with this?"

"This collective was created to serve him," the droid revealed.

Rin was totally blow away by the droid's cold and simple answer. She never once suspected that Iliaster had some kind of connection to her long lost father. As the green-haired girl tried to figure out what such a connection might be, her mind suddenly went back to Divine's story about those aliens who fled their dying planet of Niburu thousands of years ago and tried to conquer Earth, and how she was supposedly descended from the royal line of those aliens. She still believed that the story was totally ridiculous, but then she recalled the strange vision that she had of her father the first time she had performed a Pendulum Summon. Rin remembered how in the void of space she was transported to in her vision, she had seen the ancient city ship that Divine had referred to as Aerial Fortress Seibal. She also recalled that her father was wearing an outfit that looked like something that someone from Iliaster might wear. He even had on an eyepiece like the one Yugo had as Aten.

The whole idea that her father and these aliens that Divine had called the Anunnaki was too horrible for Rin to accept. She refused to believe that she was truly descended from a dead race of alien conquerors, or that her father was somehow in league with the group that had successfully conquered over half the world and was currently trying to consume it completely. Rin never got the chance to know her father, but she wanted to believe that he could be a part of something so evil. The only problem was that her vision seemed to fit with Divine's story of the Anunnaki and the droids' revelation that Iliaster had been made to serve her father. The fact that Seibal had appeared in Rin's vision and that her father had on an outfit with the same infinity motif as Iliaster could not be written off as mere coincidence.

Eventually Rin and the droids exited the highway and arrived at the parking lot of what appeared to be some sort of large factory. Aten was sitting in the middle of the lot on his D-Wheel. His helmet had yet to be replaced, allowing Rin to confirm that her was actually who she had came for. Rin immediately pulled away from her two mechanical escorts and drove up to the Iliaster duelist.

"You should know that this meeting is futile, Rin Akaba," Aten told her with a blank expression. "We are aware from Yugo Sakaki's memories that he is very important to you, as you were very important to him. But he is nothing more than a component in our collective, a vessel that we had chosen to create our emissary, Aten. By speaking to him, you are only speaking to our collective."

"Listen to me, Rex Goodwin, or whoever it is I'm actually talking to right now!" Rin spoke. "I came all this way for one reason, to duel Aten! If I win, I get Yugo back. But if Aten wins, I'll go with your droids to this citadel place they told me about."

"Your proposal is intriguing," Aten admitted. "We are aware that you obtained the ability to perform the lost Pendulum Summoning method two years ago. It would be interesting to see how skilled you've become at it. Very well. We accept your proposal. However, know that even with the aid of the Pendulum Summon, it is impossible for you to defeat Aten."

"We'll see about that," Rin declared.

With that, Rin and Aten raced back towards the onramp to the highway while the two droids that had escorted Rin moved out of the way. In seconds they were both back on the system of bridges that ran throughout the city.

"Action Field on!" Aten called out. "Crossover Accel!"

As the color of the surrounding area changed slightly, the system of bridges adjusted to give the two a racecourse that wouldn't interfere with the normal mechanized traffic of the city. Rin pulled ahead of Aten at the last second just as they reached their computer designated turn off and stole the first turn. Soon after, an explosion of white light went off in the sky above and scattered Action Cards all over the track.

"My move!" Rin announced. "Since I don't have any monsters on the field, I special summon Windwitch – Ice Bell!"

On cue, Rin's blue and purple-haired witch of ice materialized next to her D-Wheel with a cold gust of wind.

"I now activate Ice Bell's effect and summon another Windwitch monster from my deck!" Rin announced. "I summon the Tuner monster, Windwitch – Brass Bell!"

Appearing next to Ice Bell was a young woman with dark-pink eyes, a freckled face, and long chestnut-brown hair with a lock of white hair that covered her left eye. Atop her head was a conical charcoal-grey hat with a wide brim and a large white bow on the front. She also had on a white bodysuit with chestnut-brown trim and an attached short skirt that was open a bit in the front, along with charcoal grey boots and gloves. On her chest was a large pink bow with a blue crystal broach in the center. The young witch rode atop a flying blue crystal broom with a star on the front and a large brass bell on the back in place of bristles.

"I tune the level three Brass Bell into the level three Ice Bell for a level six Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Brass Bell flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Ice Bell and transformed her into three white stars.

"Elemental wind, gather lightning and thunder to become a raging storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level six! Windwitch – Storm Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a massive bolt of lightning that shot down the track. The light from the flash faded to reveal Rin's storm conjuring witch, her long dark hair waving in the breeze.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Rin announced.

Aten drew his first card. "Because my opponent controls a Synchro Monster, I can now special summon Meklord Sentinel – Synchro Slayer from my hand!"

Materializing next to Aten's D-Wheel was a glittering silver humanoid robot. On the sides of its head were two long brass-colored horns shaped like lightning bolts. It had a single eye in the form of a narrow black screen with a red dot going back and forth, while the rest of its face was a grilled faceplate. On its round chest was a window in the shape of an infinity symbol that showed a ball of red energy inside. The machine's right hand was a pair of black bladed pincers, while in place of a left hand it had a long golden sword blade.

"I also summon Meklord Sentinel – Recon Drone in Attack Mode!" Aten announced.

Appearing next to Synchro Slayer was a small dark-blue aircraft resembling a plane. Mounted on the tops of its wings were two small black cannons, and on its underside was a pair of dark-blue arms with chrome ball joints and small chrome pincers on the ends. On the head of the craft was a black screen with red lines on it that formed the image of an angry face.

"When Recon Drone is summoned to the field, I can add a Meklord monster to my hand!" Aten announced. "I attack Storm Bell with Synchro Slayer! When Synchro Slayer does battle with a Synchro Monster, it gains 1000 ATK during that battle! Which means its ATK goes up from 1600 to 2600, 300 points more than the ATK of your monster!"

"I activate my Trap, Temperature Drop!" Rin announced. "When one of my Windwitch monsters is attacked, Temperature Drop lowers the ATK of the attacking monster by 300 points times the level of the Windwitch being attacked! Storm Bell is a level six monster, which means Synchro Slayer loses 1800 ATK!"

Synchro Slayer leapt across the battle towards Storm Bell with its sword arm raised. As the robot came in striking distance, its sword blade began to crackle with red electricity. Before Synchro Slayer could land a killing blow however, a blast of freezing wind emanated from Storm Bell's body. Parts of Synchro Slayer's body became covered in frost, and when the machine tried to slash Storm Bell across the chest, his sword blade broke in half. Storm Bell retaliated by shocking Synchro Slayer with bolts of lightning from her fingertips, causing the robot to explode and Aten's life points to drop to 2500.

"I set two cards on the field and end my turn," Aten announced. "You disappoint us, Rin Akaba. We were expecting to see your ability to Pendulum Summon in this duel."

"Be patient. I'm just getting warmed up," Rin told him as she drew her next card. "First I play the Spell card, Forecast Fortune!"

The large image of the Spell card that Rin played showed an illustration of Ice Bell in front of a map giving a weather forecast, using her wand to point at the blue line symbolizing a cold front.

"Forecast Fortune lets me look at the top five cards of my deck and put them back in any order I wish," Rin announced. "Then, if I have a Windwitch monster when I activate this card, I can special summon a Windwitch monster from the top of my deck! I reorganize my top five cards and special summon Windwitch – Breeze Bell!"

On cue, Rin's blue and green-haired witch appeared on the track next to Storm Bell.

"I activate Breeze Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Breeze Bell has been special summoned, I can summon a Windwitch monster from the Graveyard! I summon Brass Bell back to the field!"

Breeze Bell waved her wand, scattering small specs of white light from the star at the end of it. Soon after, Brass Bell reappeared next to the blue and green-haired witch.

"I tune the level three Brass Bell into the level four Breeze Bell for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Brass Bell flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Breeze Bell and changed the witch into four white stars.

"Midwinter wind, harness ice and snow and blow a storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level seven, Windwitch – Winter Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a small blizzard that subsided moments later to reveal Rin's ace monster. Soon after though, Recon Drone exploded in a massive flash of fire and smoke. In moments the smoke from the explosion cleared to reveal Meklord Emperor Wisel.

"What… what's that Meklord Emperor monster doing on the field?" a surprised Rin asked.

"Recon Drone automatically destroys itself when my opponent successfully performs a Synchro Summon," Aten explained. "And because Recon Drone was destroyed by a card effect, I was able to summon Meklord Emperor Wisel."

"Well… that doesn't matter!" Rin declared. "I activate Storm Bell's effect! Once per turn, Storm Bell can destroy up to two of my opponent's set Spell and Trap cards, and then deal 400 points of damage for each one!"

"I activate the final effect of Recon Drone from the Graveyard!" Aten announced. "When a Synchro Monster's effect is activated, I can banish Recon Drone from the Graveyard to negate that effect and switch that monster to Defense Mode!"

Storm Bell fired bolts of lightning from the tips of her long fingers towards Aten's two set cards. Before the attack could hit though, a ghostly image of Recon Drone appeared and blocked the lighting with a spherical transparent barrier of blue light. The barrier vanished after blocking the attack, and Recon Drone fired two beams of orange light from the cannons on its wings that hit Storm Bell in the chest and knocked her into Defense Position. With its attack successful, Recon Drone vanished.

"You should bare in mind that we are familiar with all your potential tactics thanks to the knowledge we gained from Yugo Sakaki," Aten reminded Rin.

"Maybe so, but I'm still going to win this!" Rin declared. "I activate Winter Bell's effect to deal 200 points of damage times the level of a Windwitch monster in my Graveyard! I target Breeze Bell with this effect to deal 800 points of damage!"

"I activate a Trap, Meklord Damage Converter!" Aten announced. "When I have a Meklord monster on the field when I would take damage from an opponent's card effect, Meklord Damage Converter negates that damage and increases my life points by an equal amount!"

Winter Bell fired bolts of blue lightning from her eyes down at Aten. Suddenly Wisel moved into the attack's path and opened its chest, sucking the bolts into its body. The window on Wisel's chest closed and Aten's D-Wheel briefly glowed with a blue aura as his life points rose to 3300.

"As we just said, it is futile to fight us witch tactics we are already familiar with," Aten told her.

Rin bit her lower lip in frustration. "Winter Bell, attack Meklord Emperor Wisel! Winter's Wrath!"

"There is no point in such a tactic!" Aten declared. "Wisel's ATK is 100 points greater than Winter Bell's! You will only succeed in damaging yourself!"

"That's what you think!" Rin told him. "Because I used Brass Bell to summon Winter Bell, any monster that Winter Bell attacks loses 500 ATK during that battle!"

"…An impressive tactic," Aten praised. "Attacking a Meklord Emperor before it has a chance to use its effect on a Synchro Monster is a very effective move. However, we were prepared for that possibility as well. I activate my Trap, Matrix Capture! This card negates your Synchro Monster's attack and activates Wisel's effect to equip itself with that same monster!"

Winter Bell fired a barrage of icicles across the battlefield towards Wisel. Before the attack could hit though, Wisel fired a beam of red light from the screen that served as its face at the barrage, causing the icicles to melt. Wisel's chest then opened up and snared Winter Bell with green energy cables. Winter Bell was turned into a ball of green energy and pulled into the white robot emperor, raising its ATK to 4900.

"It is useless to oppose us, Rin Akaba!" Aten declared. "Though we have no intention to assimilate you into our collective, Yugo Sakaki is part of us will be now and forever! You have no choice but to accept it!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I had thought about having Yugo duel a mind-controlled Rin in one of the earlier versions of this story. There were two reasons why I decided not to do that though. The first was because I had done the same thing with Yusei and Aki in my classic story, _5D's Alternative Book 1: Stardust and Roses_. The second and biggest reason is because the ARC-V anime ended up doing its own episode where Rin fought Yugo under the influence of mind control. In fact they took the whole thing too far with that damn parasite. I'm sorry, but to me that just crossed a line. It might not have been so bad if the plot with those damn parasites hadn't been dragged out like that, but sadly it was. Just one of the many things that was wrong with the final season of ARC-V.

I had to admit though, that the idea of Yugo having to duel a mind-controlled Rin was a good plot for the story to have. Then one evening while I was rereading the _Sailor Moon_ manga, I had the brilliant idea to flip the script and have Rin duel a mind-controlled Yugo. That was the same moment I had the idea to turn Iliaster into a "tribute" to the Borg from _Star Trek_.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	24. Message of Love

**Author's Note:** The title of this chapter is also the title of another Journey song. The song in question was the first track of an album that Journey did during the early or mid 1990s called _Trial by Fire_. It's probably not one of their best known albums but still a pretty good one. The first time I heard the song, _Message of Love_ , it kind of reminded me of Yugo and Rin. I suppose that was because I was really into the ARC-V anime at the time, but to me the song seemed to symbolize their relationship. Or at least it did to me, to others it may not. If you ever get the chance though, I highly recommend that those of you reading listen to _Message of Love_ on YouTube. It really is an amazing song.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 25: "Message of Love"

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Rin announced after realizing there was nothing more she could do.

Aten drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Sentinel Recycling! By banishing a Meklord Sentinel from my Graveyard, Sentinel Recycling allows me to draw two more cards! I banish Meklord Sentinel – Synchro Slayer to activate Sentinel Recycling's effect! Next I activate the effect of Meklord Emperor Wisel to equip itself with Storm Bell!"

"I activate my Trap, Violent Storm!" Rin announced as Wisel's chest began to open. "When one of my Windwitch monster's is targeted by an opponent's card effect, I can tribute the targeted monster to destroy all other monsters on the field! Then my opponent takes 1000 points of damage!"

Just as Wisel launched the energy cables from its chest across the field towards Rin's monster, Storm Bell suddenly exploded with a blinding flash of blue light. The sky darkened and several lightning bolts suddenly rained down from the sky, striking random parts of the track. One of the massive lightning bolts struck Wisel, causing the Meklord to explode with a flash of fire and smoke. The rain of lightning bolts stopped and the sky cleared soon after Wisel's destruction. When the smoke from the explosion cleared though, a new monster was standing in Wisel's place.

The monster in question was a humanoid robot made of red metal. Its arms and legs were connected together by black spherical joints, and on its chest was a window in the shape of an infinity symbol showing a ball of red light inside. On the sides of the robot's head were thick curved dark-grey horns, and its face was a black screen with red lines showing an almost demonic face. Extending from the robot's rear end was a long dark-grey tail ending with a red point. With both hands, it carried a large double-sided axe with a long handle.

"What the… where did that come from?" a surprised Rin asked.

"When a Meklord monster of mine is destroyed by an opponent's card effect, I am able to summon Meklord Sentinel – Imperial Revenger from my hand!" Aten announced. "I attack directly with Imperial Revenger! When Imperial Revenger attacks, it gains 400 ATK for each Synchro Monster in my opponent's Graveyard during the Damage Step! Your Graveyard currently holds two Synchro Monsters, which means the ATK of Imperial Revenger rises from 1700 to 2500!"

As Imperial Revenger charged across the track towards Rin, the green-haired girl spotted an Action Card up ahead on the road. Rin sped up to grab the card, unwittingly missing another Action Card that was by her on her left.

Just as Imperial Revenger came in range, Rin snagged the Action Card she was after. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This card cancels Imperial Revenger's attack!"

Aten grabbed the Action Card that Rin had missed. "I activate the Action Card, No Action! This card negates the effect of Evasion!"

Imperial Revenger kept on going and slashed Rin across the back with its massive axe. Rin cried out as her life points dropped to 1500. At the same time, Aten pulled ahead of Rin on the track.

"You are proving to be something of a disappointment, Rin Akaba," Aten remarked. "We were expecting you to be a much more skilled duelist. As it is, it seems you've reached your limit. I set one card on the field and end my turn."

Rin cursed herself for missing that other Action Card and letting Aten get ahead of her. She needed to do better if she was going to save Yugo. Rin wondered if perhaps she had been distracted by the earlier claim that her father was connected to Iliaster, or if she was just unnerved by the fact that she was dueling Yugo. Whatever the reason was though, Rin knew that she needed to focus on winning the duel.

Rin drew her next card. "I activate the second effect of Forecast Fortune from the Graveyard! By banishing Forecast Fortune, I can draw two more cards! Now… using the Scale 2 Windwitch – Frost Bell and the Scale 9 Windwitch – Drizzle Bell, I set the Pendulum Scale!"

Rin placed the two cards in question at the far ends of the duel disk blade of her D-Wheel. The word, "Pendulum" flashed across the blade once the two cards had been placed. Soon after, two tubes of ethereal blue light appeared to the left and right sides of Rin's D-Wheel. A different monster was contained inside each tube. Inside the tube on Rin's left was the light-blue and green-haired Windwitch – Frost Bell, who was standing with her crystal broom in her left hand.

The monster inside the other tube was a young woman with pinkish eyes and long lavender hair that had a lock of red hair that covered her left eye. Atop her head was a large purple conical hat with a wide brim and a large pink bow on the front. She had on a dark-blue bodysuit with pink trim and an attached short skirt that was open in the front, along with pink gloves and pink knee-high boots. On the young woman's chest was a large pink bow with a blue crystal broach attached to the front. In the young woman's left hand was a blue crystal broomstick with a silver bell at the end.

"With the Pendulum Scale set at two and nine, I can simultaneously summon monsters from level three to eight!" Rin announced.

On cue, a giant orange number two written in alien writing appeared beneath Frost Bell inside her tube. At the same time, a large orange number nine in the same alien writing appeared beneath Drizzle Bell. Soon after, a gigantic crystal pendulum appeared in the sky and began to draw a circle of light.

"Swing! Pendulum of ages! Draw and arc of light across the heavens!" Rin chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle being drawn by the giant pendulum suddenly turned into a hole of blue light. A ball of pink light flew down out of the portal, followed closely by a ball of light-blue light.

"Witch of the midwinter land!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Ice Bell!"

The ball of pink light that had flown down out of the portal turned into another copy of Ice Bell with greenish hair.

"Elegant witch of the sturdy chime!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Tin Bell!"

Emerging from the other ball of light that had come down out of the portal was Rin's silver-haired Windwitch Tuner.

"I now activate Ice Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Ice Bell has been special summoned, she can inflict 500 points of damage to my opponent!"

As Ice Bell aimed her wand at Aten, the Iliaster duelist snagged another Action Card that was on the road to his right. "I activate the Action Card, Acceleration! This card negates the damage from Ice Bell's effect!"

"Sorry, but I activate Frost Bell's Pendulum Effect!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, Frost bell can negate the activation of a Spell card and deal 200 points of damage! Which means now instead of 700 points of damage instead of just 500!"

Frost Bell winked and fired a bolt of blue electricity from the palm of her right hand down at Aten just as Ice Bell fired a bolt of lightning from her wand. The large representation of Aten's Action Card shattered as both attacks struck him in the back. The Iliaster duelist's life points dropped to 1600 upon being hit.

"I tune the level three Tin Bell into the level three Ice Bell for a level six Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Tin Bell flashed orange before changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Ice Bell and transformed the green-haired witch into three white stars.

"Ancient elemental wind, gather together and become a mighty storm!" Rin chanted. Synchro Summon! Appear! Level six! Windwitch – Tempest Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a bolt of lightning that shot down the track, fading seconds later to reveal a new monster. The creature's lower half was a large silver bell with a wide blue band just above the lower edge. Its upper half meanwhile was the body of a woman with long wavy silver hair. She had on a sky-blue mask with emerald eyes that completely covered her face, along with a large conical hat that had a wide brim and a black band that had a silver buckle on the front. Her skin was chalk-white, and she had on a sky-blue shirt with long baggy sleeves, along with a long dark-grey cape that had a high collar that was green on the inside.

"I activate my Trap, Synchro Annihilator!" Aten announced. "When my opponent successfully Synchro Summons a monster, Synchro Annihilator destroys it and 200 points of damage times the summoned monster's level!"

"In that case, I activate the Pendulum Effect of Drizzle Bell!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, Drizzle Bell can negate the activation of a Trap and destroy it! Then I gain 200 life points for each Windwitch monster on the field!"

Drizzle Bell winked and fired a bolt of lightning from the palm of her right hand. The lighting bolt struck the large representation of Aten's card and caused it to shatter. Soon after, a small cloud appeared above Rin and showered her and her D-Wheel with rain. Rin's life points rose to 1700 as the rain cloud faded.

"Your Imperial Revenger only gains ATK when it's attacking, which means Tempest Bell's 2100 ATK is more than enough to take it down!" Rin declared. "Tempest Bell, attack Imperial Revenger! Gathering Storm!"

A small dark-grey ball-shaped cloud crackling with electricity formed between the palms of Tempest Bell's hands. When the cloud got large enough, Tempest Bell launched it across the battlefield. Imperial Revenger was struck in the chest and exploded with a flash of fire and smoke. Aten's life points dropped to 1200.

"And now, when Tempest Bell destroys a monster in battle, she deals half that monster's original ATK as damage!" Rin announced.

Tempest Bell fired bolts of blue lightning from the tips of her long fingers that struck Aten in the back. Aten cried out as his life points dropped to a mere 350.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Rin announced. "I don't care how impossible winning this duel might seem! I'm not stopping until I get Yugo back!"

Aten shook off Rin's attack and drew his next card. He then spotted an Action Card on the side of the road to his left and grabbed it.

"First I activate the Spell card, Spellbooks from the Pot!" Aten announced. "This card allows us both to draw three extra cards from our decks! Next I activate the Spell card, Card Destruction! Now we must both discard our entire hands and draw the same number of cards!"

"I don't think so!" Rin declared. "I activate Frost Bell's Pendulum Effect to negate the activation of Card Destruction!"

"And in response, I activate the Action Card, System Error!" Aten announced. "This card negates the activation of an opponent's card effect!"

Frost Bell aimed her palm at Aten to fire another blast, only to cry out upon being shocked by bolts of green electricity. With Frost Bell temporarily paralyzed, Rin and Aten discarded their hands and drew new ones.

"Now I banish Meklord Emperor Wisel, Meklord Emperor Skiel and Meklord Emperor Granel from my Graveyard to summon Meklord Sentinel – Prime Matrix Dragon!" Aten announced.

The sky darkened again, and three balls of light suddenly rose up from the ground floor of the city below the bridge Aten and Rin were on and shot up into the air, disappearing into the clouds. Soon after, there was a blinding flash of light above, and the sky cleared as Aten's mechanical dragon descended towards the track.

"I activate Prime Matrix Dragon's effect and equip it with Windwitch – Tempest Bell!" Aten announced.

Prime Matrix Dragon opened its chest and launched several red energy cables across the field that snared Tempest Bell. Tempest Bell struggled in vein as she was turned into red energy and pulled into Aten's mechanical dragon.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Instant Assimilation!" Aten announced. "When I have Prime Matrix Dragon on the field, Instant Assimilation lets me summon as many Synchro Monsters from my opponent's Graveyard as possible! Arise and serve the collective! Windwitch – Winter Bell and Windwitch – Storm Bell!"

A large portal of green light appeared up ahead on the track, and Rin's two fallen Synchro Monsters rose out of it in different forms before it closed up. Covering Winter Bell's eyes was a chrome visor with a narrow black screen that had a small red dot going back and forth across it, and the sphere that served as her lower half had turned chrome and had a window on the front shaped like an infinity symbol. Inside the window, a large ball of green energy could be seen. Storm Bell meanwhile also had a visor like the one Winter Bell had covering her eyes, and on her chest was a chrome piece of armor that also had a window in the shape of an infinity symbol and showed a ball of green light inside.

"Both Winter Bell and Storm Bell have become Meklord monsters due to the presence of Prime Matrix Dragon," Aten announced. "Furthermore, Prime Matrix Dragon gains 500 ATK for every Synchro Monster on the field! With the ATK it gains from having Winter Bell and Storm Bell present, combined with the ATK it gained from absorbing Tempest Bell, the ATK of Prime Matrix Dragon is currently at 6100! Prime Matrix Dragon! Attack Rin Akaba directly and end this pointless duel! Iliaster Sanction!"

"I activate my Trap! Negate Attack!" Rin announced. "This card cancels your dragon's attack and ends the Battle Phase!"

Prime Matrix Dragon opened its mechanical jaws and fired a massive beam of red light down at Rin. At the last second though, a small vortex appeared in front of Rin's D-Wheel and sucked the energy blast in.

"In that case, I shall end my turn," Aten announced. "And in this moment, I activate the effect of Prime Matrix Dragon and summon Tempest Bell to my field as a Meklord!"

The mechanical dragon's chest opened up and a ball of red light flew out. The ball of energy turned into Tempest Bell in an altered form. She had on a chrome visor like the ones Winter Bell and Storm Bell had on, and he chest was covered by a piece of chrome armor that had the same type of window as the armor on Storm Bell's chest.

"It is futile to continue this duel, Rin Akaba," Aten declared. "Why are you trying so hard to remove Yugo Sakaki from our collective?"

"Because he's very important to me," Rin answered. "I never realized how important though until he was taken from me. And I'm going to take him back right now!"

With that, Rin drew her next card. As she pulled the card from her deck, the gemstone in her bracelet gave off a brief flash of light.

"With the Frost Bell and Drizzle Bell still set in the Pendulum Scale, I now simultaneously summon monsters whose levels are between three and eight!" Rin announced.

The giant pendulum that had appeared during Rin's last Pendulum Summon reappeared in the sky and began drawing another circle of light.

"Swing! Pendulum of ages! Draw and arc of light across the heavens!" Rin chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle drawn by the giant pendulum turned into a blue portal and two balls of light flew down out of it. One of the balls was red while the other was blue.

"Yuletide witch of the northern lands!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – North Polar Bell!"

Emerging from the ball of red light was the Santa-like witch that was one of Rin's first Pendulum Monsters.

"Arctic witch of the southern lands!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – South Polar Bell!"

The ball of blue light that had descended from the portal changed into North Polar Bell's twin.

"I activate South Polar Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When South Polar Bell has been special summoned, I can change her level to a level from one to six until the end of the turn! I change South Polar Bell's level from three to four!"

South Polar Bell waved the blue crystal wand in her right hand above her head, causing sparkling white lights to rain down upon her. The young witch's body briefly gave off a feint green aura upon being hit by the lights as her level went up from three to four.

"Next, because I have two Wind monsters on the field, I special summon Windwitch – Snow Bell!" Rin announced.

Materializing next to the two Windwitch twins was the powder blue Christmas ornament that was Snow Bell.

"What is the point of this move?" Aten asked. "All three of those monsters are Tuners. It is impossible for you to perform a Synchro Summon with them."

"South Polar Bell's effect lets me use her as a non-Tuner when Synchro Summoning a Wind monster!" Rin announced. "I tune the level three North Polar Bell into the level four South Polar Bell for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

North Polar Bell waved her wand in the air a few times before flashing orange and transforming into three green rings of light. The rings encircled South Polar Bells and transformed her into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come to my aid! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal Yugo's original dragon. Clear Wing let out an echoing roar and Aten cried out as the dragon seal on his back suddenly lit up. At the same time, the gemstone in Rin's bracelet began to shine.

"Because North Polar Bell was used to summon a Wind Synchro Monster, I gain life points equal to that monster's level times 300!" Rin announced.

Rin and her D-Wheel briefly glowed with a blue aura as her life points rose to 3800.

"What… are you doing… with that card?" Aten asked.

"Don't you remember Yugo? Your deck was left behind when you got captured," Rin reminded him. "I've kept it safe all this time along with the D-Wheel you and I built together; the D-Wheel that I'm riding right now. And now I'm going to use your best cards to bring you back! I tune the level one Snow Bell into the level seven Clear Wing for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Snow Bell flashed orange and changed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Clear Wing and transformed the dragon into seven white stars.

"Shine the wings that store the holy light and strike down your enemies with its radiance!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of white light that expanded outward, fading seconds later to reveal Clear Wing in his evolved form. Crystal Wing roared and caused Aten to cry out again as the light from his dragon mark began to intensify. The gem in Rin's bracelet also began to shine even brighter.

"I equip Crystal Wing with the Spell card, Message of Love!" Rin announced.

Appearing on Crystal Wing's chest was a piece of silver armor with two small speakers on each side and a larger speaker in the center. Frost Bell and Drizzle Bell had also gained extra equipment as well. Each witch had gained a pair of black sunglasses and a red electric guitar.

"Message of Love can only be equipped to a Synchro Monster," Rin announced. "And the monster equipped with it gains 500 ATK for each card in my Pendulum Zones! That means right now, Crystal Wing has 4000 ATK!"

Frost Bell and Drizzle Bell both played a riff on their guitars that could be heard from the speakers on Crystal Wing's chest. The dragon let out another roar as the two witches played.

"I attack Prime Matrix Dragon with Crystal Wing!" Rin announced. "And as you know, when Crystal Wing battles a level five or higher monster, he gains that monster's ATK during the battle! Crystal Wing! Attack Yugo's false dragon and end this! Krystallos Gale Edge!"

As Drizzle Bell and Frost Bell continued to play their instruments, Crystal Wing took off high into the sky, leaving a trail of white light in his wake. After getting high enough, the cybernetic dragon turned back town and zoomed towards Prime Matrix Dragon at high speed. Crystal Wing plowed right through Prime Matrix Dragon's chest, causing the mechanical dragon to explode in a fiery blaze. With Prime Matrix Dragon destroyed, the Synchro Monsters that Aten had captured had returned to their original forms. When the smoke cleared though, Aten's life points had risen to 3350.

"What just happened?" a surprised Rin asked.

"I… activated the effect of… Meklord Sentinel – Damge Shield… from my hand," Aten announced, sweat from the pain of his dragon mark covering his brow. "When I would take damage… from a battle involving a Meklord monster I control… I can send Damage Shield from my hand to the Graveyard to negate that battle damage… and gain life points equal to the ATK of the Meklord monster that was destroyed. Your attack… was wasted."

"That's what you think!" Rin told him. "When a monster equipped with Message of Love destroys a monster in battle, it inflict 1000 points of damage for each Synchro Monster on the field! Right now there are four Synchro Monsters out, which means you take 4000 points of damage!"

The playing of Frost Bell and Drizzle Bell intensified and the sounds of their instruments resonated though the speakers on Crystal Wing's chest. Crystal Wing let out an ear-splitting roar that shattered the windows of all the surrounding buildings. The sound blast from Crystal Wing struck Aten, and he screamed in pain as electrical sparks shot from his eye piece and life points dropped to zero. With the duel finally over, the monsters on the field vanished. Aten's D-Wheel came to a slow rolling stop and the now unconscious Iliaster duelist collapsed off of it and fell to the pavement.

Rin pulled over and rushed over to Yugo's side. She knelt down and saw that he was totally out cold, and smoke was rising from his damaged eyepiece. Rin attempted to wake Yugo up, but he was completely out cold. Suddenly Rin could hear the sound of sirens approaching in the distance and knew that Iliaster had likely just deployed a squad of security droids to retrieve her and Yugo. As Rin frantically tried to figure out what to do, she heard the sound of two D-Wheels coming towards her position, and they sounded much closer than the oncoming droids.

Looking up, Rin saw the two D-Wheels in question zoom up from around a corner up ahead. One of them resembled a horse and was being operated by a rider with long blonde hair. The other D-Wheel was a vehicle of futuristic design and was ridden by a man in wearing a cobalt-colored riding suit and orange goggles. Both vehicles pulled up next to Rin and Yugo.

"Grab your boyfriend and come with us!" the blonde ordered Rin.

"Who are you?" Rin asked.

"No time for introductions!" the blonde snapped. "If we don't get out of here quick, we're screwed! Now get your ass in gear!"

Rin decided it was best not to argue and tried getting the still unconscious Yugo to his feet. The man in the orange goggles dismounted his D-Wheel and went over to help Rin with Yugo. The blonde tilted her head a bit at the man's actions, and while Rin couldn't be sure because of the woman's helmet, it felt to her as if the blonde was rolling her eyes. Within moments, Rin mounted her D-Wheel and the goggled man put Yugo on the vehicle behind her. Once Yugo was secure, the man in goggles rushed back to his D-Wheel right as the squad of security droids came in sight.

As the droids advanced on them, the three riders took off down the road, with the man in goggles leading the way. Rin rode directly behind him while the blonde took up the rear directly behind Rin.

"Listen closely, Ms. Akaba!" the man in goggles spoke. "For what I'm about to do, you must stay directly behind me in the wake of my D-Wheel. If you don't, it could result in a very fatal accident. Understand?"

"Not really, but I'll do as you ask," Rin answered.

"Punch it, Bruno!" the blonde ordered.

The man in goggles nodded and revved up his D-Wheel. Rin and the blonde followed after him as closely as they could as he picked up speed. Suddenly a blue light began to form around the front of the cobalt rider's D-Wheel, and the wind seemed to form a tunnel around the three vehicles. As the man in goggles picked up speed, the light at the front of his D-Wheel flashed and became larger, and the three D-Wheel's suddenly vanished into a portal of light before the droids could get to them.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** As though of you reading have probably figured out, I also used _Message of Love_ , as the name of the card Rin used to defeat Aten and free Yugo. At the time, it seemed extremely appropriate. Also, credit for Windwitch - Tempest Bell goes to my friend, Firebolt the Blazing Saint. I don't remember which of us originally came up with the card's name, but he was the one who came up with stats and effects for it.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	25. The Cabin

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 25: The Cabin

Rin and her two new escorts wound up riding though a tunnel of blue light after passing through the strange portal that had taken them off the highways of Neo Domino. They were only inside the tunnel for what seemed like less than a minute though, for soon there came blinding flash of light that appeared to signal the tunnel's end. When the light cleared, Rin found that they were now on a rugged trail that seemed to go up the side of a mountain. The sky was overcast and the air was extremely cold. Rin noticed a thick layer of snow on the ground, which indicated that they seemed to be very high up on the mountain.

"Um, where exactly are we?" Rin asked her two escorts. "More importantly, how did we get here?"

"Right now, we're headed for a little cabin we have here on a mountain at least two hundred miles from Neo Domino," the blonde woman answered. "As for how we got here, it's kinda technical. Bruno could try and explain it to you later if you want, but at best he'd probably just put you to sleep."

"We should be at the cabin in approximately five minutes," the goggled man known as Bruno informed Rin. "Don't worry. There's very little chance of Iliaster finding us here."

Rin and the others continued up the mountain trail. As they did, a gentle snow began to fall. Rin couldn't help but notice how beautiful the falling snow was. It was after all the first snowfall she had seen in over two years since Iliaster had forced her and her friends underground. Despite the beauty of the snow though, Rin was very eager to get to this cabin that Bruno and the blonde were talking about. Not only did she want to get Yugo some medical attention, she really wanted to get some place warn; as her riding suit wasn't exactly designed to protect her from the cold.

It was not very long before the travelers reached a large level piece of land. On that spot of land was a medium-sized single story cabin with brown walls and what appeared to be a garage attached to its right wall. The cabin's front door was painted green, as was the door to the garage. The cabin's pointed roof was of course covered in snow. As they approached the cabin, its garage door opened and Rin and the others pulled inside.

Once they were inside the garage, the door began to close, and Bruno helped Rin get Yugo off her D-Wheel and though the door that led into the main house. Rin got a good look at the interior of the cabin once they were inside. There was a small and excellently furnished living room complete with a large flat screen T.V. and a state of the art stereo system. Right beside the living room area was a small open kitchen with a fridge and a marble countertop, along with a polished dining room table with a matching set of four chairs. There were also two large windows behind and to the left of the little dining area that showed a spectacular view of the outside.

Bruno guided Rin and the still unconscious Yugo into a hallway between the living room and kitchen areas of the cabin. The goggled man took them to the first room on Rin's left, which was revealed to be a small well-furnished bedroom with a large bed. After Bruno and Rin set Yugo on the bed, he removed his helmet to reveal a head of pointed blue hair.

"I'm going to get to work removing the implant covering Yugo's eye," Bruno informed Rin. "You probably won't want to be here for this."

"You do know how to take it off him, right?" Rin asked.

"More or less," Bruno answered. "Don't worry, Ms. Akaba. Yugo is in good hands. For now, why don't you get something to eat? I'm sure you must be hungry after the day you've had."

Rin decided to take Bruno up on his offer and headed out of the room to the small kitchen she had seen. As she emerged from the hallway while taking off her helmet, Rin saw that the blonde woman that had been her other escort was behind the counter pouring a glass of milk. The blonde had taken off her helmet, allowing Rin to finally get a look at her face. The blonde had green eyes and very striking features.

The blonde noticed Rin heading towards the counter. "Care for something to drink? We've got water, milk, orange juice, and these horrid smoothies that only Bruno seems able to stand."

"Some milk will be fine, I guess," Rin decided as she took a seat on one of the three black barstools that were in front of the counter. "So, who are you people exactly?"

"I'm Sherry LeBlanc," the blonde answered. "You've already met Bruno. Our job is sort of to protect you and Yugo, not that we've been doing a bang up job of that so far of course. In our defense though, there wasn't much we could do to save Yugo from being captured during that little stunt your psychic friends pulled on that bridge. We were just too far away and there were just too many of those damn droids. Things might've been different if Bruno and I had been allowed to move into your little resistance group, but we were under orders to keep our distance until absolutely necessary."

"Under orders? So you and Bruno are working for someone?" Rin asked. "Who is it?"

"I guess there's no harm in telling you that much," Sherry decided. "His name's Rudger Goodwin."

"Wait, Goodwin? As in Rex Goodwin, the man who's running Iliaster?" Rin asked.

"The very same," Sherry confirmed. "Rudger is Rex's older brother, but he doesn't agree with anything Rex has done. The reason why Bruno and I were forced to keep our distance is because Rudger didn't want his brother to know that he's trying to stop him."

"Okay, but why does this Rudger Goodwin want you and Bruno to protect me and Yugo?" Rin asked.

At this, Sherry took a long sip from her glass of milk. "Well… the short answer is that you and Yugo are likely the key to stopping Iliaster once and for all. There's actually a lot about this I can't really tell you yet because I'm under orders. Rudger doesn't think that you're ready to hear it all yet, and I kind of have to agree."

"Well what can you tell me?" Rin asked. "Does this idea that Yugo can take down Iliaster have anything to do with his dragon? Because our friend, Shinji once had the same idea a couple of years ago."

"Your friend wasn't all that far off, but there's a lot more to it than that," Sherry told her. "I'm sure you've seen that mark that shows up on your boyfriend's back a few times. That mark is the seal of a being known as the Crimson Dragon. Don't ask me to tell you exactly what it is, because I don't really know. But it comes from the stars and has protected Earth a few times from certain evils that popped up a few thousand years ago. Some scholars believe that this Crimson Dragon was the inspiration behind the myth of the Azrec god, Quetzalcoatl.

"According to the legends, the Crimson Dragon would pick certain humans to help in its mission to protect Earth, giving them marks like the kind on Yugo's back. The people who bore these marks were called Signers. Most of these Signers would have marks that only represented a part of the Crimson Dragon's body, like its head or its wings. There are a rare few of these Signers though like Yugo who would posses full seal of the dragon. These Signers were said to be incredibly powerful. One of these Signers who possessed the full mark of the Crimson Dragon was a powerful barbarian who had the power to communicate with Duel Monster spirits and once led an army against a hoard of invaders from another world."

A slight chill went down Rin's spine when she heard Sherry mention a supposed legendary barbarian who did battle with invaders from another world. It caused her to recall how Divine had mentioned that a powerful barbarian had supposedly defeated the Anunnaki during their unsuccessful attempt to conquer the Earth. It unsettled Rin that Divine's story and Sherry's seemed to have that one common detail, and caused her to wonder if there really was some truth in Divine's claim about her supposed alien heritage.

"Anyway, it's no coincidence that Yugo ended up with Clear Wing Synchro Dragon," Sherry continued. "You see Clear Wing is the very first Synchro Monster ever to exist. That barbarian I mentioned to you once called upon the Crimson Dragon to give him a powerful servant to help him overthrow the invaders. The Crimson Dragon lent the barbarian his power and allowed him to harmonize the life energy of two monsters to give rise to a completely new dragon born with the Crimson Dragon's strength. Clear Wing is basically the Crimson Dragon's son."

"Its son?" a surprised Rin repeated.

"That's right," Sherry confirmed. "There were other dragons born soon after Clear Wing, but they aren't the Crimson Dragon's children. These dragons came into being because the six warriors who were closest to the barbarian had figured out how to copy the same summoning method used by the barbarian to create their own dragon servants. When Maximillion Pegasus stumbled upon the secret of Synchro Summoning while creating the Duel Monsters card game, the stone tablets for Clear Wing and these other six dragons I've mentioned were the first Synchro Monsters he saw. He made those dragons into cards and used the information he collected where the tablets were stored to figure out how Synchro Summoning works."

"But what are these other six dragons?" Rin asked.

"You've seen your friends use a few of them," Sherry revealed. "One of them is the dragon used by Neo Domino's champion, Jack Atlas."

It was then that Rin recalled how the mark on Yugo's back seemed to glow when Clear Wing would roar at the dragons belonging to Aki and Jack, and also how the dragon cards belonging to Crow and Luna would seem to glow while Clear Wing was active during a duel involving Black Rose or Red Dragon. She never once suspected that all of those dragons had such ancient origins. She also recalled the strange things Ruka had said about Clear Wing being some sort of prince during those trances she'd have when her dragon card would glow.

"Okay, but what about me?" Rin asked. "What do I have to do with taking down Iliaster?"

"That's kind of the part that I can't tell you right now," Sherry answered. "Like I said, you're not ready to hear that, especially not after the day you've had. My advice is to just relax and enjoy your stay at this cabin. You stay here. I'm going to make sure that your room is ready."

With that, Sherry left the kitchen and headed into the hallway. Rin remained sitting where she was, thinking about everything Sherry had told her about Yugo and his supposed connection to this Crimson Dragon. It wasn't long though before her mind went back to Yugo's current condition. She hoped very much that Bruno was as good at removing that implant as he said he was.

* * *

Crow was walking the halls of the resistance base towards the large main garage. Saiga and Izzy had called Crow over the communication system five minutes earlier saying that they had a surprise for him. While the redhead wasn't really in the mood for surprises, he was a bit eager to stretch his legs. Crow had been confined to a bed in the infirmary for the past week, and the doctors had only recently released him. In addition to the broken arm he received at the end of his duel with Aten, Crow also had suffered three broken ribs and a concussion that thankfully did not cause any lasting damage.

Of course while Crow seemed to be recovering fairly quickly from his physical injuries, the mental injuries he had recently suffered were another matter. His loss to Aten had hit him fairly hard, partly because of Aten's true identity as Yugo. Another thing that didn't help was Aki and Jack allowing Rin to abandon the convoy mission and go off after Yugo. That whole week Crow had been worried about what had happened to Rin. He was of course furious with Jack and Aki for letting Rin go off on her own, and what really infuriated him was that everyone in the resistance seemed to be totally behind Aki and Jack's actions. Crow's moral may have been at an all-time low, but everyone else's moral had been at its highest in years. The redhead was really starting to doubt his abilities as a leader.

Crow arrived at the garage and found Izzy and Saiga at the far right corner near the massive metal door working on what looked like a D-Wheel. As he got closer, he saw that the D-Wheel in question was the one he had lost during the convoy mission.

"Hey man," Izzy spoke as he saw Crow coming near. "Bet you never thought you'd see this baby again, huh?"

"How did…?" Crow began to ask.

"Once we were sure that droid patrol activity in the area where you dueled Aten had gone down, I went out with Sid and a couple of the others and hauled it back in one of the trucks," Saiga revealed. "It needs a whole lot of work, but in time we'll have it up and running better than ever."

"Thanks guys," Crow told them. "Though I don't really know why you bothered."

"Just when I thought you couldn't get any more pathetic," a familiar voice remarked. Crow and the others looked and saw that it was Jack.

"Really not in the mood right now, Jack," Crow told him.

"It's bad enough that you've been acting like a coward," Jack responded. "The last thing any of us need is for you to start feeling sorry for yourself."

"Yeah? Well where the hell did you and Aki get off letting Rin go after Yugo like that?" Crow shot back. "For all we know, Iliaster has probably assimilated her by now!"

"Rin was the first person in this resistance besides me who had the spine to do something towards actually overthrowing Iliaster!" Jack told him. "We've played things too safe for too long now!"

The argument was interrupted by the distinct sound of someone's throat being cleared. Crow and the others looked to see Carly standing a few feet away.

"Hey guys. Sorry to interrupt, but there's been sort of a development," Carly reported. "You might wanna come to the command center."

With that, Crow and Jack dropped their argument and followed Carly to the command center with Izzy and Saiga. When they arrived a few minutes later, they saw that Ushio, Sid, Aki, Matsuri, Shinji, Anastasia and Team Unicorn were all present.

"So what's up?" Crow asked.

"You know the people we evacuated here during the convoy mission?" Ushio asked. "It turns out one of these people was actually an agent carrying some information that could be a big help to our cause."

"Somehow this agent managed to obtain codes for disabling the security barriers all of the major droid manufacturing plants outside of Neo Domino," Jean reported. "If we could take at least a few of those plants out of operation, it would deal a heavy blow to Iliaster."

"Carly's been on the line all morning with the leaders of the other resistance branches," Ushio revealed. "We're working on a coordinated plan of attack to take out as many of the bases as we can. We just need your approval, Crow."

"I don't know… this idea seems pretty risky," Crow remarked.

"Dammit Crow! Will you grow as spine already?" Jack snapped. "We finally have a chance to deal a major blow to Iliaster, and you're afraid to take it?"

"He's right, Crow. This is the first chance we've ever had to do something towards taking back this world," Shinji agreed. "We're never going to gain ground just running and hiding all the time. This mission may be incredibly risky, but it's a risk that everyone in this room is ready to take."

"…Fine. You guys do whatever you want," Crow relented. "It's not like I'd be of much help either way."

With that, Crow headed for the door out of the command center. Jack merely huffed and turned his back to the redhead as he left.

"What the hell is his problem?" Andre asked.

"Cut him some slack, man. His head's not in a good place right now," Breo pointed out. "Between that trashing he got from Aten and Rin running off like that, he's taken quite a beating mentally. He just needs a little time to recover."

"And right now, we need to focus on taking out those factories," Aki told them. "Now let's get to work."

* * *

Rin was sitting in a large blue armchair by Yugo's bed, waiting for him to wake up. She had been in that chair almost constantly since Bruno had finished the operation to remove the eyepiece that Iliaster had used to control him. Rin had gone back to the room that Sherry had prepared for her to change out of her riding suit and into some clothes that had been laid out; an outfit consisting of a black t-shirt with a pink vest and blue jeans. After though, Rin had stayed in Yugo's room watching him. Yugo had been unconscious for over a day and a half since he had been knocked out at the end of his duel as Aten, and Rin was starting to get very worried that he might never wake up.

"Still no change, huh?" a familiar voice asked.

Rin looked, and standing in the doorway was a young man with slightly long unkempt blue hair and indigo eyes. He had on a while jacket with yellow trim and yellow pockets over the front, along with a blue t-shirt with a large white horizontal stripe around the middle, blue jeans, and a pair of blue and white sneakers. Rin let out a startled scream upon seeing the stranger, causing him to let out an equally startled cry in response.

"Who… who are you?" Rin asked.

"Relax! It's only me, Bruno!" the man answered.

"Uh… seriously?" a stunned Rin asked. "Wow! I totally didn't recognize you."

"It's understandable," Bruno responded with a nervous smile as he rubbed the back of his head. "I do look radically different when I'm not wearing my riding outfit. Sherry pretty much reacted the same way around the time we first started working together. Anyway, I just came in to see how you were doing."

"I'm doing okay," Rin assured him. "Yugo on the other hand…"

"Look, why don't you go to your room and get some rest?" Bruno suggested. "I'll let you know the instant Yugo's condition changes."

"Thanks, but I want to be right here when Yugo wakes up," Rin told him.

"Well… alright," Bruno replied. "I'll be back later with something for you to eat. You really should try to keep your strength up."

With that, Bruno exited the room and Rin went back to her silent vigil.

* * *

Bruno entered the living room area of the cabin to find Sherry on the couch reading a book. The blonde had on a white turtleneck sweater and a pair of black slacks.

"I heard screaming coming from you and Rin earlier," Sherry remarked, not once looking up from her book. "I told you to knock on the door and let her know who you were."

"I know. I forgot," Bruno responded with a heavy sigh as he sat next to her on the couch.

"So, I take it Yugo is still out cold?" Sherry assumed.

"I'm afraid so," Bruno confirmed. "Rin insists on remaining by his side until he wakes up."

"Can't blame her a bit," Sherry responded. "That boy's the most important person in the world to her. She's not going to rest easy until she knows he's going to be okay."

"…Hey Sherry… how much did you tell Rin about why Dr. Goodwin assigned us to protect her and Yugo?" Bruno suddenly asked.

"Well I didn't tell her about the stuff she wasn't supposed to hear, if that's what you're asking," Sherry answered, this time looking up from her book. "The doc was right. She's totally not ready to hear about any of that stuff, especially not now. I only told her about Yugo being a Signer and his dragon's relationship to the Crimson Dragon. I did also mention the barbarian that Clear Wing was originally partnered with thousands of years ago, but I said very little about the enemy he fought."

"Okay. I trust your discretion, but I just wanted to make sure," Bruno told her. "As you said, she is in no way ready to hear about her connection to those invaders."

"To be perfectly honest though, I think she might suspect something about it already," Sherry spoke as she marked and closed her book. "Who knows what that lunatic who ran the Arcadia Movement told her about her roots? Plus she might've picked something up while she was in Neo Domino. We both saw how those droids escorted her to where Yugo was. She might've asked them some very big questions, like why the hell they weren't assimilating her into that collective."

"True. It doesn't seem like we can keep the truth from her for very much longer," Bruno realized.

"No kidding," Sherry agreed. "Fortunately, all that stuff seems to be the furthest thing from Rin's mind right now."

* * *

Rin awoke from the light sleep she had fallen into earlier to the sudden sound of moaning. She looked and saw that Yugo was thrashing around in his bed as if in the grips of a horrible nightmare. As Rin reached over to try and wake him up, he shot straight up in bed with a loud scream. He sat there breathing heavily afterward, his brow glistening with cold sweat.

"Yugo?" Rin spoke as she put a hand on his shoulder. "Yugo, it's okay."

Yugo looked over at her with an expression of terror on his face. "Rin?"

"You're fine now. You're at this cabin that belongs to some new friends of ours," Rin explained. "How we got here is kind of a long story, but you're safe. That's all that matters right now."

"I… I remember all of it, Rin," Yugo spoke. "I remember every single thing that Iliaster made me do… all the people I hurt."

"Yugo, that wasn't your fault," Rin told him. "You weren't yourself during that time."

"I know, but… I tried to stop it, Rin!" Yugo told her. "I tried to stop it but I couldn't! I just wasn't strong enough! No matter how hard I tried to break free of Iliaster's grip, I wasn't strong enough! And because of that… so many lives have been ruined."

"Don't worry about all that now," Rin told him. "It's over now."

"How… how can you stand to even look at me, Rin?" Yugo asked. "Sure I didn't try to kill you in that duel… but I'm still a monster for everything I did as Aten."

Rin suddenly pulled Yugo into a hug. "Don't ever say that! Nothing you did as Aten was your fault! It was all Iliaster's. You're not a monster at all, and nothing could ever make me see you as one, ever."

"How can you say that?" Yugo asked. "How can you even look at me and not…?"

Yugo was cut off when Rin suddenly gave up a deep passionate kiss on the lips.

After a few moments, Rin finally pulled away and looked deeply into his eyes. "I love you. It took me a while to figure it out, maybe longer than it should have, but you're the one I love most, Yugo."

Yugo's breath was totally taken away by what Rin had told him. After a few moments he totally broke down in tears from the weight of emotion he was feeling. Rin pulled Yugo close and silently cried with him.

* * *

It was the dead of night as Rin woke up in her room. From the moonlight streaming in from her bedroom window she could see new snow falling outside. Rin shivered from the cold air in her room. Despite the cabin's excellent heating system, her room always seemed to be a little too chilly. It had been that way during her now five-day stay at the cabin, and Bruno seemed unable to fix the problem. Deciding that enough was finally enough, Rin left her room to go get an extra blanket out of the hallway closet.

As Rin headed for the closet, she heard the sound of moaning coming from Yugo's room. Rin had been very concerned about Yugo's state of mind since he had first woken up. He just hadn't seemed at all like himself. Rin decided to go into Yugo's room to check and see if he was okay. Upon entering the room, Rin found Yugo in the grips of a nightmare. As soon as Rin went over to try and wake him up, Yugo shot up in his bed in a cold sweat.

"Yugo, are you okay?" Rin asked.

"Yeah, I… I'm fine," Yugo assured her. "It's just another nightmare. I've been having them ever since I got here."

"What… what are these nightmares about?" Rin asked, though she feared she already knew the answer.

"They're about the stuff I did as Aten," Yugo answered. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to sleep soundly again because of all that."

"Yugo… move over," Rin ordered.

"Huh?" Yugo responded.

"You heard me. Move over," Rin told him again.

Yugo complied and moved over a space on the bed away from the blue chair next to it. Rin then got into the space next to him got him to lie back down. Yugo's face turned a bright red as Rin cuddled up close to him.

"There. This way I'll be right here in case you have another nightmare," Rin told him. "Now get some sleep."

After a few moments, Yugo relaxed, closed his eyes and gently wrapped his arms around Rin. It wasn't long before he had fallen back asleep. Rin meanwhile felt the safest that she had ever felt in the last two years with Yugo's arms wrapped around her. She also found that he was much warmer than any blanket that she could've pulled out of the closet. Within a few more moment, Rin had fallen into a very deep sleep.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And with this chapter, the Aten arc finally comes to a close. I hope everyone enjoyed this latest chapter. The second to last scene of this one was a little harder to write than I had expected because of the raw emotion involved. The final scene though was one that I'd been picturing almost ever since this story was in the outline stages. I'm very happy that I was finally able to present it to everyone.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	26. Infiltration

**Author's Note:** I deeply apologize to everyone for not updating this story for over a month. I had intended to take only a week-long break from this story to work on another project. When it came time to outline the duel that we're about to see in this chapter though, I ended up getting hit with a nasty case of writer's block. And that writer's block ended up being made worse by stuff that had been happening in my personal life. In fact a couple of weeks ago I was hit by a fairly nasty bout of depression that totally crippled my ability to write anything.

I'm back at the story now though. It took a little longer than I would've like to get this chapter finished, but here it is at last. The future updates to this story may be a little slower than they were before, but this story is nowhere near dead.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 26: Infiltration

Yugo slowly awoke from a dreamless sleep to find that something soft and pleasantly warm was cuddled up close to him. His nostrils also detected the familiar scent of flowers after a gentle spring rain; a scent that he often associated with Rin. Yugo slowly opened his eyes to see Rin's sleeping face only inches away from his own. The realization was asleep in bed next to him caused Yugo to fully awaken and his brain to go into panic mode. He recalled that time two years ago back in the underground hideout of the resistance when the two of them had accidentally fallen asleep together on the couch and Rin's rather violent reaction to the whole thing.

As Yugo's brain finished its morning boot-up though, he recalled that Rin had purposely gotten into bed the night before after he had experienced another nightmare. With the realization that Rin wasn't going to kill him, Yugo instantly relaxed. He had almost fallen asleep again after a few moments when Rin suddenly stirred and slowly opened her eyes.

Rin looked at Yugo and smiled. "Good morning."

"Uh… good morning," Yugo responded as his face turned bright red.

"Did you sleep well?" Rin asked as she gently brushed Yugo's cheek with her hand.

"Yeah," Yugo answered. "Um, thanks for that last night."

"No problem," Rin responded.

The two of them were now gazing deeply into one another's eyes. Before either of them really knew what was happening, Rin and Yugo's faces moved closer to one another and their lips became locked in a kiss. The kiss soon deepened, and Yugo's tongue pressed against Rin's lips for entry. Rin's mouth opened almost automatically, and their tongues began to grind against one another. As the kiss continued, the two of them became locked in a very passionate embrace, with Yugo running his hand through Rin's green hair.

They rolled on the bed with Rin ending up on top. When they were finally forced to break apart for air, Rin sat up and looked down at Yugo; her face bright red. It was at that moment when both Rin and Yugo seemed to regain the capacity for rational thought.

"Uh… I think maybe we should get up now," Rin suggested. "I'm sure Bruno already has breakfast ready."

"Good, uh… good idea," Yugo agreed. "I'll join you guys in a minute."

Rin got off the bed and walked out of the room with her face still bright red. Yugo remained where he was, flat on his back looking up at the ceiling. He was actually kind of glad that Rin had decided to pull the plug on their steamy little encounter since he didn't think he was ready to take their relationship to that level, even though there was one currently rigid part of his anatomy that seemed to strongly disagree with him. Yugo at last got out of bed and headed for the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face.

* * *

Rin arrived at the small dining area of the cabin to find Sherry sitting at the table with a plate of pancakes and a glass of orange juice in front of her. Bruno meanwhile was behind the stove cooking up another batch of pancakes.

"Well good morning," Sherry spoke as Rin sat down across from her. "This is the latest I've ever seen you get up so far."

"I, um… overslept," Rin lied. She would've been mortified if Sherry and Bruno knew the real reason why she was late getting out of bed.

"No big deal to me," Sherry replied with a small shrug. "It's not like we need to get up at the crack of dawn to feed the chickens here or anything like that. You must've had some pretty wild dreams last night though."

"Why do you say that?" Rin asked as Bruno brought over a plate of pancakes and a glass of milk for her.

"Because of the way your hair's so messed up," Sherry answered. "You must've thrashed around in bed quite a bit to make it into that wild of a bird's nest."

Rin's face turned a very deep red in response to Sherry's observation. She would surly die of embarrassment if the blonde really knew if it was Yugo's hand that had messed up her hair rather than her pillow. "Uh… it was a really far out dream alright."

"What was it about?" Sherry asked.

"Oh… um… come to think of it, I don't remember," Rin lied. "You know how it is sometimes with dreams. Sometimes you forget all about them right as you're waking up."

"Perhaps I should check on Yugo and see if he'll be joining us," Bruno suddenly suggested. "I know he hasn't had much of an appetite these past few days."

"Can't blame the kid for that after everything he's been through," Sherry remarked. "It probably is a good idea to go check on him though."

"I think Yugo will probably be joining us soon," Rin told them. "Just a feeling I get."

Almost as if on cue, Yugo walked into the room, rubbing the back of his head as he headed for the table. "Morning."

"Ah! Good morning Yugo," Bruno responded. "Glad you decided to join us. Care for some pancakes?"

"Sure," Yugo answered as he sat in a chair next to Rin.

Bruno brought over a plate of pancakes and another glass of milk and sat them in front of Yugo. Yugo stabbed his fork into small stack on his plate and cut off a small slice. After taking his first bite, the young turbo duelist decided they were good and began to tear into them. Rin was relieved to see that Yugo was slowly getting his old appetite back. He wasn't quite at his usual level of trying to devour every piece of food on the table like a famished Tasmanian devil, but it did seem like he was starting to get there.

"Don't be afraid to ask for seconds," Bruno told Yugo.

"So Yugo, it kind of seems like you must've had a pretty wild dream last night too," Sherry remarked. "Your hair is just about as messed up as Rin's."

Yugo froze upon hearing Sherry's comment, a fork full of pancake slices only inches from his open mouth. He realized that the reason his case of bedhead was because of the hot encounter that he and Rin had only a few minutes before. Yugo's eyes looked toward Rin to find the green-haired girl giving him a glare that seemed to say, "Mention one word of what we were just doing and I'll beat you to a pulp."

"Uh… yeah," Yugo lied in response to Sherry's question. "It was a pretty wild dream."

* * *

While Yugo and Rin were having breakfast, miles away Crow was in the command center with Ushio and Carly overseeing the biggest operation the resistance had taken yet. Days before, after it was discovered that one of the people rescued during the convoy mission had the security codes for every one of Iliaster's major droid manufacturing plants, each branch of the resistance worked together to put together a coordinated plan of attack to eliminate the factories and deal a crippling blow to Iliaster. Each branch had decided to send teams of its strongest duelists to distract the droids guarding the factories while other teams of agents infiltrated the actual facilities to plant bombs that will blow them all sky high. Once the plan had been finalized, Jack, Aki, Shinji, and every other powerful duelist at the Japanese branch left to take down the largest factory outside of the one in Neo Domino, with Saiga and Izzy going with to help with the bombs. This left only Crow, Ushio, Sid, and the rookie security officers that Ushio had trained to help guard the base in the unthinkable event it was attacked while everyone was away; one of the very things that Crow was afraid would happen during that mission.

Crow and Ushio stood next to one another as they watched the large centeral monitor on the wall of the command center that showed the assault team's position on the map. The large red dot that showed the team's current position showed them not far away from the location of the factory.

"How much longer until the team reaches the factory?" Ushio asked.

"They should be there in about half an hour," Carly answered from the seat of her computer station. "All but two other branches report that their teams have reached their targets. They're just waiting on the signal to begin."

"I sure hope this operation doesn't end up being something that we all regret," Crow remarked.

"You know what they say. No risk, no reward," Ushio told him. "This is our first chance to finally strike a blow against Iliaster."

Crow sighed. "I know. Jack, Shinji, and everyone else had a point. We're not gonna get anywhere just hiding out down here the rest of our lives. I just worry that we might be risking too much."

"I know how you feel. A lot about this mission makes me uneasy too," Ushio admitted. "Still, if we don't do this, if we just do nothing, Iliaster is going to win."

"You know what they say," Carly spoke as she swiveled around in her chair. "All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. I'm probably more on edge than either of you with Jack out there on the frontlines. Every time he goes out on one of these missions I worry that he won't come back. But the thing that keeps me together is my faith in Jack's power as a duelist; that he's a man that no droid can take down. I believe he'll come back, just like I believe that the others will come back too."

"Yeah, well… I'm also kinda worried about what might happen here while everyone else is out," Crow told them.

"Relax. I've seen to it that security here is as tight as it's ever been," Ushio told him. "It's practically impossible for any enemy to get in here."

"I really hope you're right," Crow replied. "It's just that these past couple of years have made me a firm believer in Murphy's Law."

* * *

Sid was making his rounds through the base making sure everything was totally secured, not that he was expecting anything to be amiss. The base was the most impenetrable facility he had ever been in, and as far as he knew Iliaster didn't even know its location. Sid had covered half the base as the assault team neared its destination and was heading for the central D-Wheel hanger. When he arrived, two of the rookie security officers, Doug and Toshi were standing in the middle of the vast chamber shooting the breeze.

"Gentlemen, status report!" Sid ordered as he approached to duo.

"All's quiet around here, sir," Doug reported.

"Yeah. Nobody's been in here for hours," Toshi added. "To be honest, I kinda feel like we're wasting time hanging around this empty garage."

"To be honest, I kind of agree with you both," Sid admitted. "But we need to be on high alert with our best duelists out in the field. We need to be ready for absolutely anything."

Suddenly the ground began to shake violently. As Sid and the other two guards tried to figure out what was happening, a large drill suddenly burst from the ground in the very center of the hanger only a few feet from where the three were standing. The ground stopped shaking once the drill penetrated the surface. Attached to the other end of the drill was a massive golden-yellow cylinder. The three security officers instantly noticed the objects and readied their duel disks.

Sid and the others watched as what appeared to be steam vented from the seams of what looked like a large hatch on the side of the device. The door of the hatch went inward and retracted to the right, showing a black interior. Walking out of the strange vehicle a few tense moments later was a short man with his hands folded behind his back. He had on a smooth chrome helmet with a white clown-like mask on the front; a mask which had green eyes, a red nose, a grinning mouth full of yellow teeth, and a black infinity symbol on the front. The rest of the short man's outfit consisted of a long black leather coat with a strange metal pack on the back, long white pants, black knee-high boots and white gloves.

The short man let out a creepy high-voiced laugh as he approached Sid and the others. "Well, well. It seems we've hit the jackpot. We knew that this branch of the resistance had to be keeping its base underground somewhere."

"Halt!" Sid ordered. "Whoever you are, you better leave now or else you'll experience a world of hurt!"

"Oh my! Such an inhospitable welcome," the clown remarked as he brought his hand to the mouth of his mask. "Well, it's a good thing I brought a little muscle with me to deal with people like you. Oh Sergey!"

Suddenly lumbering out of the cylindrical capsule was a large muscular man who stood at well over six feet. He had short white hair and yellow criminal markings that decorated an emotionless stone-like face that resembled that of Frankenstein's Monster. A chrome eyepiece with a red lens covered his left eye, and his ears were covered by a pair of chrome rectangular devices that were joined together by a metal band that went around the back of the head. His outfit was a white bodysuit decorated with black lines resembling circuit paths on the arms and legs, and a large black infinity symbol on the front of the chest. On his feet was a pair of thick black boots.

All of the color totally drained from Sid's face upon seeing the muscular giant. "Oh… dear… god."

"Sergey, crush these buffoons quickly so that we can get on with our work," the clown ordered. "And don't worry. I'm sure there are plenty more victims where these three came from."

Sergey's mouth twisted into a mad grin as he raised his duel disk arm. As soon as he saw the giant's expression, Sid knew he was finished.

* * *

"Our team has now reached the target," Carly reported. "All other branches are reporting same. Everyone's waiting on your signal, Crow."

"They're all leaving it up to me, huh?" Crow asked.

"Our branch is the only one close to the heart of Iliaster," Ushio pointed out. "It makes sense for us to take the lead."

Crow sighed. "Okay. Let's get this over with. All teams attack!"

"All teams moving out," Carly reported. "Our team's heading straight for the front gate of the factory."

Suddenly all of the lights and monitors inside the command center went out. Soon after, the emergency lights mounted on the upper walls of the room flicked on. The monitors came back on after half a minute, though many of them showed only digital static or lines of computer code.

"What the hell was that?" Ushio asked.

"The base's primary generator's gone dead," Carly reported. "All the backups are working, but we're at about fifty percent of normal power right now."

"Do we still have contact with the assault team?" Crow asked.

"No, but we're trying to reestablish it now," Carly answered. "All of the computers are rebooting, so it's going to take a minute."

"Dammit!" Crow cursed. "Of all the times for this to happen…"

"Hold on! We're getting a call from the hanger," Carly reported.

"Put it on monitor three," Ushio ordered.

On cue, an image of Sid appeared on one of the smaller monitors on the wall. _"Guys… we're in trouble! Two intruders… inside the base… can't stop them. Have to…"_

Before Sid could finish, his face slipped off the screen and the sound of his body falling to the floor could be heard. Only the inside of the hanger could be seen on the monitor.

"You've gotta be kidding!" Ushio exclaimed. "How could intruders get inside the base?"

"It doesn't really matter now, since they're here," Crow pointed out. "Carly, can you pull these freaks up on surveillance?"

"Working on it now!" Carly answered. "Found one of 'em! I'm putting him up on the main monitor."

The central screen changed from static to an image of one of the corridors in the base. As soon as the image appeared, the group saw Sergey lumber across the screen, turning into one of the other corridors.

Ushio went completely pale upon seeing the giant. "Dear god! That's… that's Sergey Volkov!"

This time it was Crow's turn to go pale. "As in the Duelist Crusher? He's really one of the intruders?"

"I heard he had died not long after being arrested," Ushio recalled. "The story is that Anastasia beat him up pretty badly in their duel. If that really is Sergey… we could all be dead."

"What do we do now?" Carly asked.

Ushio gritted his teeth and headed for the door. "Crow, you stay here. I'm gonna go take down Sergey before he can do any more damage."

"Do you really think you can take him?" Crow asked.

Ushio stopped at the doorway and looked back. "Not a chance in hell. But what other choice do we have? Besides, I've always pictured myself going out in a blaze of glory."

With that, Ushio exited the room. Not long after he left, Crow slammed his fist into the table.

"This is pretty bad, isn't it?" Carly realized.

"You kidding? This is the worst thing that could've happened to us," Crow confirmed. "We can only hope that Ushio somehow stops Sergey before that monster hurts anyone else."

* * *

Rua, Ruka and Hitomi had been hanging out in the base's small arboretum ever since the mission to take out the droid factories had begun. The arboretum was one of the more popular spots in the base, as it almost created the illusion that they were on the surface. Many of the plants were still quite young, but it helped make the base's inhabitants feel like they weren't trapped inside a vast underground compound. Of course with the arboretum's primary lights out, the space had become a lot less inviting.

"Maybe we should all go back to our quarters," Hitomi suggested. "At least until this issue with the power is resolved.

"That's probably a good idea," Ruka agreed.

"Man! This day just keeps getting worse and worse," Rua complained as they started for the door. "First they don't let me go on that big mission, and now this."

"Rua, that sort of battle is way out of our league," Ruka told him.

"She's right, Rua," Hitomi agreed. "As a duelist, you've been getting better and better, but you're still nowhere near the level of duelists like Mr. Atlas or Ms. Aki."

"Hey! I can duel just as well as any of them can!" Rua declared.

Ruka merely rolled her eyes. Just as the trio had reached the door, Sergey lumbered in and blocked their path. All three of them practically froze upon seeing the giant. Sergey meanwhile looked down at them with indifference.

After taking a big gulp, Ruka stepped forward to confront him. "Who are you? And how did you get into this base?"

Sergey said nothing and suddenly grabbed Ruka by the front of her shirt, lifting her off the ground. Before Rua and Hitomi could do anything, the cybernetic giant threw Ruka towards a young tree just a few feet away. The green-haired girl's head struck the trunk of the tree as she dropped to the ground, knocking her out cold. Hitomi instantly ran over to where Ruka had fallen while Sergey slowly came towards her.

Rua instantly rushed in and got between Sergey and the girls. "Hey! I don't know who you are, you freak! But I'm not gonna let you get away with hurting my sister!"

"By the will of Iliaster… all the people of this facility must either be assimilated or destroyed," Sergey told him. "If you stand in my way… you will be crushed."

"Yeah? We'll bring it!" Rua told him as he dropped the bag that had been hanging from his shoulder to the ground and pulled his duel disk from it.

"Rua! Be careful!" Hitomi told him.

"Relax. I can take down this freak no problem," Rua confidently told her as he activated his duel disk.

Sergey activated his own duel disk in response. "You resistance is futile. This unit shall annihilate you."

* * *

Ushio was running as fast as he could towards the area where Sergey had been last spotted on surveillance. He was unsettled by the fact that he had run into nobody in the corridors. Ushio thought that perhaps everyone other than the guards and the engineering team had gone back to their quarters for the duration of the power outage, but he knew it might also mean that Sergey had already eliminated anybody that might've been out walking around. Either way though, Ushio tried to put it out of his mind and focus on figuring out a way to take Sergey down. Of course he had no clue how to begin forming a proper strategy since he didn't know what sort of deck the mad giant would be using.

After turning another corner, Ushio found three security guards on the ground. He hoped that they were merely unconscious and not dead. Just as Ushio was about to press on, he suddenly heard the sound of creepy high-pitched laughter coming from behind him. Ushio turned around slowly and saw the masked clown standing a few feet away.

"You seem in quite the hurry," the clown remarked. "Please relax. Stay awhile. I'd so enjoy having your company."

"You're the other guy who broke in here with Sergey Volkov!" Ushio realized as he activated his duel disk. "I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to Sid and the others!"

The clown laughed as he activated his own duel disk in response. "You have no idea who you're up against, my dear fellow. By the time I'm through with you, you'll be screaming in terror."

* * *

"I shall go first," Sergey announced. "I summon Meklord Punisher – Shocker in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Sergey's side of the battlefield was a floating sphere made of a dark-grey metal. On the front of it was a window with a brass frame in the shape of an infinity symbol that showed a sphere of red energy on the inside. On the top of the sphere was a metal skull-like head with red eyes and a sort of mouth guard made of sharp blades. On the sides of this head were two short black curved horns. Attached to the sides of the sphere were two brass electrodes, and on the bottom was a cylindrical brass floatation device with three thin black rods on the bottom.

"What the heck? He played a monster with only 300 ATK in Attack Mode," Rua observed with a raised eyebrow.

"Rua, be careful!" Hitomi called out. "That monster probably has a powerful special effect if he played it in Attack Mode with those low stats."

"Next I play the Continuous Spell card, Punishment Shackles!" Sergey announced. "While this card remains face-up on the field, any monster that's summoned from the Extra Deck or the Graveyard has a shackle counter placed on it. Also, each player must pay 400 life points each time they attack using a monster with a shackle counter on it. I shall play two cards face-down and end my turn."

Rua drew his first card. "I summon Morphtronic Celfon in Attack Mode!"

A giant yellow cell phone appeared on Rua's side of the field and instantly unfolded into a humanoid robot.

"Now I activate Celfon's effect!" Rua announced. "Depending on the number that lights up on Celfon's chest, I can pick up the same number of cards from the top of my deck and summon a Morphtronic from one of those cards! Celfon! Dial it up!"

On cue, the number buttons on Celfon's chest lit up one at a time, cycling from one to six. After going through the sequence at least five times, the light finally stopped on the number two.

Rua pulled two cards from his deck and smirked. "From the cards I picked up, I summon Morphtronic Remoten in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Celfon was a flat white device resembling some sort of iPod. Arms and legs extended from the sides of the device, and two green circles resembling eyes appeared on its black screen.

"I tune the level three Remoten into the level one Celfon to Synchro Summon a level four monster in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

The eyes on Remoten's screen were replaced with the word, "Tuning" before its body flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Celfon and transformed the robot into a single white star.

"Guardian of sound from the modern age! Strike forth and play the song of justice!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level four! Morphtronic Warrior Stereon!"

The star flashed and became a pillar of white light that soon faded to reveal a large dark-grey stereo that unfolded into the shape of a humanoid robot.

"Because the monster you just played was summoned from the Extra Deck, a shackle counter is now placed on it!" Sergey announced.

A beam of crimson light shot from Sergey's Spell card and shot Stereon. When the beam faded, the stereo robot had thick black iron shackles on its wrist that were connected by a thick chain.

"I activate the Continuous Trap card, Punishment Vice!" Sergey announced.

Suddenly two thick black chains burst from the ground on Rua's left and right and wrapped themselves around the green-haired boy's midsection. Two similar chains had also wrapped themselves around Sergey.

"As long as Punishment Vice is face-up on the field, each player takes 200 points of damage for every monster they control with a shackle counter on it," Sergey announced. "I must also pay 400 life points during each of my turns to keep Punishment Vice in play."

"Rua! This man's strategy seems to be designed to make it harder for the opponent to use cards from their Extra Deck," Hitomi realized. "You have to summon as few Synchro Monsters as possible, or else you'll take major damage."

"Yeah, but… most of my best monsters are in my Extra Deck," Rua pointed out.

"It's still your turn," Sergey spoke.

"Okay, then I pay the 400 point cost of Punishment Shackles to attack that weird Meklord monster of yours with Stereon!" Rua announced.

Suddenly the screen of Rua's duel disk flashed red and shocked him with bolts of blue electricity. The green-haired duelist cried out in pain as his life points dropped to 3600. After a few moments the electricity stopped, and Rua stood trying to catch his breath.

"What… what the heck was that?" Rua asked.

"Punishment Shackles is a forbidden card that uploads a program to the duel disks of players of a duel; causing them to feel real pain when they take damage or pay a life point cost," Sergey explained. His moth then twisted into a mad grin that sent a chill down Rua's spine. "Magnificent, isn't it? Now we both get to enjoy the sweet embrace of pain."

Rua gritted his teeth. "Stereon! Blow that Meklord monster away! Rock 'n Roll Justice!"

Stereon fired a blast of rock music from the giant speakers mounted on his shoulders down at Shocker. The sinister robot seemed totally undamaged, however.

"Shocker cannot be destroyed in battle with Synchro Monsters, and I take no damage from those battles," Sergey announced. "At this moment, I activate the Continuous Trap, Imperial Penalty! At the end of a battle where a Meklord Punisher monster was attacked, my opponent takes half the attacking monster's ATK as damage!"

Stereon's attack ended, and suddenly a beam of red light shot across the field from the window on the robot's chest and struck Rua. Rua screamed in pain once again as his life points dropped to 2600.

"I… end my turn," Rua announced.

"And at this moment, the effect of Punishment Vice causes you to lose 200 life points!" Sergey announced with insane glee.

Suddenly the chains wrapped around Rua's midsection tightened, digging into his flesh as they shocked him with blue electricity and dropped his life points to 2400.

Sergey drew his next card. "I now pay 400 life points to keep Punishment Vice on the field!"

The chains wrapped around Sergey's torso tightened, and he cried out as they shocked him and dropped his life points to 3600. He recovered quickly though and chuckled madly as he looked back across the field at Rua.

"I activate Meklord Punisher – Shocker's effect!" Sergey announced. "By paying 400 life points, Shocker can attack my opponent directly!"

An insane smile was on Sergey's face as his duel disk shocked him and took his life points down further to 3200. Shocker then fired two blasts of electrical energy from the electrodes on its sides that curved around Stereon and zapped Rua. The green-haired boy cried out in pain as his life points dropped to 2300. Rua staggered back for a moment after being hit, but he somehow managed to remain standing.

Sergey giggled. "Exquisite, isn't it? It is through this glorious pain that we duelists can feel truly alive!"

"This… this guy… can't be human," Rua whispered.

"I play one card face-down and end my turn," Sergey announced.

Rua drew his next card. "I… I activate the Spell card, One for One! By discarding a monster, I can summon a level one monster from my hand or deck! I discard Morphtronic Staplen to summon Morphtronic Lantron in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Stereon was a large flashlight that quickly unfolded into a humanoid shape, with the light becoming its torso.

"Next I summon Morphtronic Videon in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

A giant handheld camcorder appeared on the field next to Lantron and instantly unfolded into a humanoid shape, with its lens becoming the head.

"I tune the level one Lantron into the level four Videon to Synchro Summon a level five monster in Attack Mode!" Rua announced.

The light on Lantron's chest flashed on and off a few times before it transformed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Videon and changed it into four white stars.

"Guardian of water from the ultra-modern world! Launch forth and cleanse the land of evil!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level five! Morphtronic Warrior Washon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the air, fading a few moments later to reveal a white front-loading washing machine with a round window on its door. Soon after appeared though, a pair of box-like legs with black lower legs and blue feet folded down from the back of the unit and clicked into place underneath it. At the same time, a pair of box-like arms with blue hands and black armor covering the forearms extended from the sides of the unit. Soon after, a head with a black helmet rose from the top of the machine. A yellow visor and a chrome faceplate covered the robot's face.

"Because another monster was summoned from the Extra Deck, Punishment Shackles places a shackle counter on it!" Sergey announced.

On cue, a beam of red light shot from Sergey's Spell card and struck Washon. When the beam faded, a pair of black shackles connected by a thick chain appeared on Washon's wrists.

"I activate Washon's effect!" Rua announced. "Once per turn, Washon can remove all counters from every card on the field that has a counter on it! And for each counter removed, I gain 300 life points!"

Washon raised its arms a bit, and the door on its chest opened and fired a powerful blast of water. Upon being hit, the shackles and chain binding its arms instantly rusted and fell apart. The washing machine robot turned and fired another water blast at Stereon, hitting the shackles on the stereo robot's arms. The shackles and chain that had been retraining Stereon rusted and fell to pieces. Steam came out of a vent on Washon's back and bombarded Rua, taking his life points up to 2900.

"Now that those counters are gone, I don't have to worry about getting burned by Punishment Vice," Rua declared.

"I activate the Trap, Punishment Enforcement!" Sergey announced. "When one or more Shackled Counters are removed from monsters on the field, Punishment Enforcement replaces those counters and deals 200 points for each counter that had originally been removed!"

Three bolts of red lightning were fired from the Trap card that Sergey had just played. Two of the lightning bolts struck Washon and Stereon, replacing the shackles and chains they had just lost with new ones. The third bolt of lightning struck Rua in the chest, causing him to cry out in pain and his life points to drop to 2500.

"You can't escape from pain that easily," Sergey told him as his face once again twisted into a made grin. "Besides, even if you did, where would the fun be?"

"I… I set one card on the field and end my turn," Rua announced.

"And with the end of this turn, Punishment Vice inflicts 400 points of damage for the shackle counters your monsters bare!" Sergey announced with glee.

At that moment, the chains wrapped around Rua's torso tightened even more and shocked him with electricity. It seemed like the chains were about to crush his ribs. Rua screamed at the top of his lungs as his life points dropped to 2100. When the electricity finally stopped, Rua's vision went blurry for a moment as he almost passed out, but somehow he managed to remain on his feet and conscious.

"Wonderful!" Sergey praised. "You're made of some pretty strong stuff for such a little boy. I'm going to have fun crushing you into the ground, and only then will you know the true joys of pain."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** With Yugo and Rin taking some downtime, I realized I had an opportunity to give the spotlight over to some characters that I had been neglecting. I wanted to have at least one more duel in this story involving Rua, and it hit me that Sergey would be the perfect opponent for him. It would've been like the duel that Rua, Ruka and Jack had against Aporia in the 5D's anime. I suppose I should've done this duel so that Ruka and Hitomi were dueling with Rua against Sergey as well, but I had already done a similar duel with Mortimer a few chapters ago. To me, it felt like some readers would've thought those three characters were incapable of dueling on their own.

The writer's block I had with the duel in this chapter was about figuring out what deck Sergey is going to use. He couldn't use either of his decks from the anime because they had Fusion Monsters. Plus as cool as his Earthbound Servant deck was, I probably would've had to bring something regarding the Earthbound Immortals into this story and I didn't feel like there was room for any of that with all the other things I had going on. It was at least a couple of weeks before I finally came up with the Meklord Punisher monsters and the Punishment Spell and Trap cards.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	27. The Sealed Dragon

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 27: The Sealed Dragon

It was midafternoon as Yugo sat on the couch looking over his old Speedroid deck. Rin had salvaged the deck after his capture two years ago and kept it with her always. Every card in the deck was the same as Yugo remembered. Rin had not changed a single thing about it. She had borrowed the cards for Clear Wing and Crystal Wing for their duel in Neo Domino, but she had put them back almost immediately after getting settled in at the cabin.

"Everything okay?" a familiar voice asked. Yugo looked up to see Rin standing to his right.

"Yeah. Just getting to know my old deck again," Yugo answered. "Feels like forever since I held these cards."

Rin sat down on the couch next to him. "That deck and the D-Wheel we built together were the only pieces of you I had left while you were gone. I did everything I could to keep them both safe."

"Thanks for that," Yugo told her as he put his hand on top of hers.

Rin leaned over and put her head on his shoulder. "What was it like… being part of Iliaster, I mean? If you don't want to answer, that's fine. It was probably stupid of me to ask."

"No. It's… it's fine. Maybe it's better that I do talk about it a little," Yugo decided as he put down his deck. "I was totally aware of everything that was going on, but I couldn't say or do anything on my own. There was another mind of some kind that was constantly making me do and think other things, and I knew that a lot of the things I did as Aten were wrong… but that other mind was in total control. I also constantly heard the other voices of people in the collective, but I could tell that they were all in the same boat I was. That same mind that was using me was using them too, like we were all puppets."

"Rex Goodwin," Rin spoke. "That's probably the mind you're talking about. Did you ever meet him in person?"

"No, but I'm positive that's who was in control of me," Yugo answered. "I may never have met the guy, but I feel like I know him pretty well."

"Well, it's all over now," Rin assured him.

"Yeah. Thanks to you," Yugo pointed out as a small smile returned to his face. "I gotta say though, I'm a little surprised that Crow let you rush off to try and rescue me."

"He didn't. I had to go off on my own," Rin revealed. "Jack and Aki both supported me though."

"…I wonder how Crow and the others are doing?" Yugo suddenly asked.

"I don't know," Rin answered. "I hope they're doing okay though." Suddenly she got up from the couch. "Hey, why don't we run a little maintenance on your D-Wheel? I'm sure you'd like to get reacquainted with it again the way you've been getting reacquainted with your deck."

"Sure. Sounds good," Yugo agreed as he got up from the couch as well.

With that, the two of the headed for the cabin's garage, both secretly worried that the resistance might not be okay.

* * *

"My turn!" Sergey announced as he drew his next card. "I now pay 400 life points to keep Punishment Vice on the field!"

The chains wrapped around Sergey's torso once again tightened, and the giant grinned with glee as he cried out from the electric shock produced by the metal restraints. Sergey's life points took a slight drop to 2800.

"Next I activate Machine Duplication!" Sergey announced. "This Spell card lets me summon two more copies of Meklord Punisher – Shocker to the field!"

On cue, two more robots identical to Sergey's original Meklord monster materialized on the giant's side of the field.

"Crud!" Rua cursed. "Now this guy can attack me directly three times."

"It's not that bad, Rua!" Hitomi told him. "Your opponent has to pay another 400 life points for each direct attack. He'd be putting himself at a disadvantage."

"Haven't you been paying attention Hitomi? This psycho doesn't care how many life points he loses."

"I now play the Spell card, Reward and Punishment!" Sergey announced. "This card lets me draw another card for each Meklord Punisher I control. But for each card I draw, my opponent gains 300 life points."

As Sergey drew more cards from his deck, a beam of soft blue light suddenly came down from above and struck Rua. The green-haired boy felt a sort of slight warmth as his life points rose to 3000 before the light vanished.

"Hey! Why'd you play a card that increased my life points?" Rua asked.

"Silly boy," Sergey spoke as he began to chuckle. "I'm nowhere near ready for this duel to end. I want to make you experience the greatest pain imaginable before I finally finish you off. And now… battle! I pay another 400 life points to let my first Meklord Punisher – Shocker attack you directly!"

"Not so fast! I activate a Continuous Trap, M-Warrior Shield!" Rua suddenly announced. "With this card, I switch one Morphtronic Warrior I control to Defense Mode! Then while M-Warrior Shield is on the field, all your monsters have no choice but to attack the Morphtronic Warrior the Trap was used on! I switch Washon to Defense Mode!"

With that, Washon transformed back into its original washing machine form, though its arms couldn't fully retract because of the chain connecting the shackles on its wrists. The panels that its arms had extended out of had become slightly bent. The white washing machine was otherwise intact though and began to glow with a blue-white aura.

"Just so you know, Washon's effect while in Defense Mode is that it gains 300 DEF points for each counter on the field," Rua announced. "I have two of your shackle counters on my monsters, which means Washon's DEF goes up from 2200 to 2800."

Sergey frowned. "I use the first Meklord Punisher – Shocker to attack Washon."

"What the…. You really are a psycho!" a stunned Rua declared as one of the Shocker robots sped across the field toward Washon. "Are you so desperate to feel pain that you'd throw the duel by attacking my wall monster?"

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Enforcement Lance!" Sergey announced. "When a Meklord Punisher attacks a Synchro Monster, Enforcement Lance destroys it at the start of the Damage Step!"

Suddenly the window on the front of the first Shocker monster opened up and a lance made of red energy extended out of it. The end of the lance pieced the door on the front of Washon, and the glowing washing machine exploded in a flash of fired and smoke.

Sergey began to laugh. "Nothing you do will protect you from the sweet pain of this duel! I now pay another 400 life points for each of my remaining two Shockers to attack you directly!"

The giant cried out in pain as his duel disk shocked him and took his life points to 2000. At the same time, the remaining two Shocker monsters fired bolts of lightning from the electrodes that zapped Rua. The green-haired duelist screamed in pain as his life points dropped to 2400. After the attack ended, Rua once again had to fight to remain conscious.

"You're a tough little boy," Sergey remarked with insane glee. "I'm going to have so much fun crushing you."

"I'm… not going… to lose to you!" Rua declared as he finally drew his next card. "I summon Morphtronic Scopen in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Stereon was a large microscope that extended cable-like arms from its sides as soon as it appeared. Its base also separated into a pair of legs.

"I tune the level three Scopen into the level four Stereon for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rua announced.

Scopen flashed orange and transformed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Stereon and changed it into four white stars.

"Abandoned guardian from a forgotten age! Be revived here and now to defend world peace!" Rua chanted. Synchro Summon! Awaken! Level seven! Junkyard Power Tool Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the air, expanding outward before fading to reveal Rua's rusted mechanical dragon. As soon as Power Tool appeared, a blast of crimson light shot from the large card representing Punishment Shackles and struck the mechanical beast. When the light faded, a pair of shackles connected by a thick chain appeared on Power Tool's wrists.

"I equip Power Tool with the Spell card, M-Power Cannon!" Rua announced.

The shovel on Power Tool's right arm glowed and morphed into a long blue box-like cannon with a chrome cylindrical barrel at the end. The shackle that had been on the wrist of Power Tool's shovel arm morphed and expanded to fit around the cannon.

"Power Tool gains 100 ATK for each Equip Spell he's armed with, which means right now his ATK is 2400!" Rua announced. "I activate M-Power Cannon's effect! By banishing a Morphtronic Warrior from my Graveyard, the monster that's armed with the cannon can attack directly this turn! I banish Washon to allow Power Tool Dragon to attack directly!"

The back of the cannon opened up and a ball of blue light flew down from above to enter the weapon's rear port. The back of the cannon clicked shut and the four rectangular lights on each side of the cannon began to glow.

"I now pay 400 life points and attack you directly with Power Tool!" Rua announced.

"Rua, don't!" Hitomi called out. "You can't take much more of this!"

"Relax. This'll all be over in a minute," Rua assured her.

Suddenly Rua's duel disk flashed and the green-haired boy screamed as it shocked him with bolts of blue electricity and dropped his life points to 2000. Rua endured the pain though and looked directly at Sergey.

"Power… Power Tool Dragon! Attack him directly!" Rua commanded through the pain of the electric shock. "M-Power Shot!"

The shock from Rua's duel disk ended and Power Tool aimed his cannon right at Sergey. A powerful blast of energy fired from the barrel of the cannon towards the mad giant.

Just as the beam was about to strike, Sergey grinned. "I activate the effect of Meklord Punisher – Lasher from my hand! By discarding Lasher when a Synchro Monster attacks my directly, Lasher negates that attack and deals 200 points of damage for each Synchro Monster my opponent controls!"

The ghostly image of a dark-grey metal sphere with a window on the front in the shape of an infinity symbol appeared in front of Sergey a split second before the beam was about to hit. A ball of red light could be seen in the window on the machine's front, and it had a head similar to that of Meklord Punisher – Shocker. On the left and right sides of the machine's body were two sets of three long metal chains, and on its underside was its cylindrical floatation device. The window on Lasher's front opened up and sucked in the energy blast from Power Tool's attack. When the energy from the blast finally faded, the torture machine flew across the battlefield towards Rua.

As Lasher came near its target, the chains on the sides of its body began to spin and swing through the air like whips. Rua raised his arms to try and block the attack, but the chains struck his left arm and gave the green-haired boy another electric shock as his life points dropped to 1800. With its job finished, Lasher disappeared and left Rua standing there trying to catch his breath.

"I… I set one card… on the field… and end my turn," Rua announced.

"And at this moment, Punishment Vice deals you another 200 points of damage!" Sergey announced.

The chains that had been wrapped around Rua's torso became even tighter, practically making it impossible for him to breath as they shocked him and caused him the scream at the top of his lungs. When the shock finally ended, Rua fell to one knee and his life points had dropped to 1600. Despite taking another powerful shock though, Rua managed to still remain conscious.

"You've put up a beautiful struggle, little boy," Sergey spoke. "But I think the time has finally come to finish you off. After all, it doesn't seem like you'll be able to last much longer."

* * *

The raid against the security droid factory had been going well, though it had been far from being an easy battle. There had been at least two battalions of droids armed with Wisel decks guarding the facility. Team Unicorn had escorted Saiga and Izzy into the factory to plant the bombs while Jack and the others took on the droids. No one really knew how much time had passed since the start of the battle, but it seemed like it had to have been at least an hour or more. Jack had just finished taking down what were probably his twelfth and thirteenth android opponents for the battle when the factory suddenly began to explode.

Blasts of fire and spoke erupted from the facility like blossoming flowers. Team Unicorn flew from the building seconds after the building went up, with Saiga and Izzy following close behind them in the silver high-speed car they had built a year before with operations like the raid in mind. The sudden detonation of the factory caused many of the attacking droids to freeze, not out of shock but out of a mechanical confusion to try and process what action they should take now that their mission to protect the facility had failed.

 _"Mission complete!"_ Saiga's voice announced over the communication line. _"Let's blow this place!"_

 _"Roger that!"_ Aki's voice responded. _"Everyone! Deploy your jamming chaff and retreat!"_

Jack scowled. "And just when I was starting to have fun."

With that, Jack pressed a red button on the controls of his D-Wheel, and suddenly streams of glittering silver particles vented from panels beneath the thrusters of his circular vehicle. The wake of Jack's D-Wheel left a thick trail of silver mist behind him as he retreated from the base, causing the droids that were coming after him to freeze and look around as if their target had vanished from sight. The other D-Wheels in the raiding party did the same thing as they retreated, and soon the barren desolate field in front of the factory was covered in a silver fog. A few moments later, Jack and the rest of the raiding party were several feet away from the factory; their supply of chaff almost totally vented. They kept on driving for at least a few more minutes until they were at least five miles from the burning facility.

When the members of the raiding party felt like they had gotten far enough away, they came to a stop to catch their breath. After fighting off an army of droids, many of them felt they needed a rest.

"Well, looks like we managed to pull it off," Matsuri declared as she removed her helmet.

"And not one of us was captured or assimilated," Shinji added. "We're either really good or just really lucky."

"Nothing wrong with being a little of both," Breo remarked.

"Guys, I think we may have a problem," Saiga informed them. "Izzy and I can't reach the base to tell them the mission is complete."

"Could something in the area be jamming our communications with them?" Aki asked.

"Nah. If that were the case, we wouldn't have been able to communicate with each other during the attack," Izzy answered. "It has to be a problem on the base's end."

"You think maybe… something might've happened?" Andre asked. "Like they were attacked while we were gone?"

"This would be the perfect time for such an attack to happen," Jean admitted. "We're the strongest duelists this branch of the resistance has. With all of us out in the field like this, the defenses at HQ are much lower than normal."

"Yeah, but our base is a massive underground fortress equipped with Mortimer's cloaking technology," Matsuri pointed out. "How the hell could Iliaster break in?"

"I don't know, but it's very possible that they have," Jean answered. "The fact that we can't raise the base is a very bad sign."

"So it looks like Crow's concerns about an attack by Iliaster happening while we were gone weren't entirely unjustified," Anastasia observed.

"If the base really is under attack, then we had better get back there as soon as possible!" Jack told them. "We can't waste time sitting around here talking about it."

"Agreed. Let's move out," Aki ordered. With that, the raiding party headed back towards the base at full speed.

"Dammit!" Jack cursed. "I really hope we're wrong about the base being attacked, because one of the last things I want is to hear Crow saying, 'I told you so'."

* * *

Sergey drew his next card. "I pay 400 more life points to keep Punishment Vice on the field!"

On cue, the chains wrapped around Sergey's torso tightened once again, digging into his flesh and shocking him with electricity. The mad giant cried out in pain as his life points dropped to 1600, but a twisted expression of pure ecstasy was on his face.

"And now… I sacrifice all three Meklord Punisher – Shockers to special summon Meklord Punisher – Mangler!"

Suddenly all three of Sergey's robots sparked and exploded, and the resulting flames joined together to become a pillar of red fire that shot into the air. After a few moments the flames died away to reveal a large dark-grey robot that stood at a towering twelve feet. It had a spherical chest with a window on the front in the shape of an infinity symbol that had a brass frame and showed a ball of red energy on the inside. Its metallic head resembled an animal skull with long curled brass-colored horns and a pair of glowing red eyes. It had long narrow arms with brass ball joints for the shoulders and elbows; ending in large hands with long bladed claws. The machine's lower half was a tall almost pyramid-shaped base with large tank treads on the sides. Attached to the robots back were two long exhaust pipes that pointed upward and billowed plumes of thick black smoke.

"Three sacrifices just to summon a monster with 1000 ATK?" Hitomi observed.

"Mangler can only be summoned to the field by sacrificing three Meklord monsters," Sergey announced. "Furthermore, it gains ATK equal to the difference between my current life points and 4000. Because I only have 1600 life points left, Mangler's ATK rises from 1000 to 3400!"

"Now I understand! Rua, this was his strategy all along!" Hitomi realized. "There's no question that this monster is insane, but there's been a method to his madness! His whole plan has been to lower his life points just to power up this monster and finish you off!"

"Very good, little girl. But there's nothing your friend can do about it now," Sergey told her. "I should also add that when Mangler attacks a Synchro Monster, that monster loses 1000 ATK during the battle. And with the boy's life points as low as they are, my next attack will finish him! Mangler, attack Power Tool Dragon! Crush Vice Claw!"

"I… I activate… my Trap!" Rua announced as Mangler advanced and reached for Power Tool. "M-Warrior Spirit! When one of my Machine monsters is attacked, M-Warrior Spirit lets me banish a Morphtronic Warrior from my Graveyard to negate that attack and switch the battle position of all my face-up monsters! I banish Stereon to stop Mangler's attack and switch Power Tool to Defense Mode!"

Just as Mangler was about to grab onto Power Tool with one of his massive claws, a ghostly image of Stereon's robot form appeared in between them and blasted Sergey's death machine with a blast of noise from the speakers on its arms. The force of the blast repelled Mangler back to Sergey's side of the field.

"After M-Warrior Spirit negates an attack, its second effect lets me summon a Morphtronic Tuner from my Graveyard," Rua announced. "I summon Morphtronic Lantron in Attack Mode!"

Right on cue, Lantron materialized next to Power Tool in its robot form.

"Don't forget, boy. The effect of Punishment Shackles applies to monsters that have been summoned from the Graveyard as well," Sergey announced.

A beam of red energy shot from the large version of Sergey's Spell card and struck Lanton. When the light faded, a pair of black shackles connected by a thick chain had appeared on Lantron's wrists.

"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn," Sergey announced. "For a child, you have a much greater threshold for pain than I thought possible. It's been a joy dueling you. But in the end, you will still be crushed. Nothing you do can change that now. And once I'm through with you, I'll get even greater enjoyment out of playing with your two friends over there."

"There… no way in hell… I'll ever let you touch Hitomi and my sister," Rua declared as he finally stood back up. "I'll die before I let you hurt them!"

Sergey grinned. "Then I'll just have to kill you. It'll be easy enough to do. You've just about past your limit as it is."

"That's what you think!" Rua declared. "You can inflict as much pain on me as you want with those illegal cards of yours, but there's no way I'll just lay down and die while the people I care about are in danger! As long as I can stand and draw cards, I'll keep fighting you until you finally go down!"

Suddenly Power Tool's damaged eye began to blink on and off. The flashes became faster and faster until it glowed with a light bright enough to bathe the entire chamber in a pinkish-red light. The mechanical dragon raised his head and seemed to try and roar, and suddenly the Extra Deck slot of Rua's duel disk popped open to reveal a glowing card. Rua looked at the card to find it was of a monster he had never seen before, but he knew that he was just the card he needed to beat Sergey and end things.

Rua put the card back in his Extra Deck and drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Release Restraint Storm! By destroying one of my Equip Spell cards, Release Restraint Storm lets me destroy all of my opponent's face-up Spell and Trap cards! I sacrifice Power Tool's M-Power cannon to destroy your three Spell and Trap cards!"

The cannon on Power Tool's right arm glowed with a blue light and shattered apart, causing the dragon's arm to return to its original form. A powerful twister of razor-sharp wind formed around Power Tool and radiated outward in a matter of seconds. The winds sliced apart Sergey's face-up Spell and Trap cards before finally subsiding. With Punishment Vice removed from the field, the chains wrapped around Rua and Sergey suddenly shattered into particles of yellow light.

"I tune the level one Lantron into the level seven Power Tool for a level eight Synchro Monster!" Rua announced.

Lantron's light clicked on and off a few times before its body flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Power Tool and suddenly shrunk around the mechanical dragon, going into its body. Soon after, several cracks that glowed with an orange-red light appeared all over the rusted dragon's body.

"Ancient dragon that burns with an everlasting life force! Shed your disguise and shine your light upon this troubled world!" Rua chanted. "Synchro Summon! Roar! Level eight! Burning Life Stream Dragon!"

The cracks in Power Tool's armor quickly widened, and suddenly its entire body exploded with a blinding flash of light. After a few moments, the light cleared to reveal a flesh and blood dragon with fiery red eyes and a body covered in golden scales. There was a vertical white scar across the dragon's left eye, though the eye itself seemed to be intact. There were two pairs of tattered yellow-white wings on its back, and embedded in the center of the dragon's chest was a large ball of pinkish-red flames that resembled a sun. Its tail ended with a tattered yellow-white fin that resembled the shovel spade on Power Tool's tail. Its arms ended in hands with long fingers that had red nails, and mounted on its left forearm was a red growth with two small wing-like fins on the sides, a glowing red orb on its top, and a long pink crystalline blade on the end that resembled the blade of a scalpel.

Burning Life Stream Dragon let out an echoing roar as soon as it finished shedding his metal exoskeleton. Suddenly Hitomi noticed a white light coming from Ruka's front jacket pocket. She reached into the pocket to find out where the light was coming from and pulled out the glowing card for Ancient Fair Genesis Dragon.

Soon after Hitomi discovered the card, Ruka suddenly regained consciousness and tried to sit up. "What's going on?"

"Ruka! Try not to move," Hitomi told her. "Rua's been in a duel with the guy who attacked us. Just now, Rua used Power Tool to summon a dragon I've never seen before."

"That dragon… it's Power Tool's true form," Ruka informed her.

"How do you know that?" Hitomi asked.

"I… don't know," Ruka answered. "I just… sense it."

* * *

Jack and the rest of the raiding party were heading for the base as fast as they could. As they continued across the wasteland, Jack noticed a light coming from the slot on his D-Wheel consul for his Extra Deck. The blonde duelist pulled out the glowing card and found that it was the card for Red Dragon.

Aki pulled up to drive right beside him with the glowing card for Black Rose in her hand. "Jack. Your dragon is resonating too, isn't it?"

"Yes. And I don't know how, but I think Rua has something to do with this light," Jack told her.

"That's what I sense too," Aki replied. "Somehow Rua has gotten a dragon likes ours. How he got it though, I have no idea."

"However he got his hands on it, we need to get to the base as fast as possible," Jack told her. "Don't ask me why, but the fact that this dragon has appeared seems to mean that something bad really is happening."

* * *

"When Burning Life Stream Dragon has been Synchro Summoned, I gain life points equal to Life Stream's DEF!" Rua announced.

Particles of pinkish-red light flowed from the orb on Life Stream Dragon's arm into Rua's duel disk. In seconds, Rua's life points rose from 1600 to 4000.

"I activate my Trap, Punisher Strike!" Sergey announced. "When my opponent Synchro Summons a monster while I control a Meklord Punisher monster, Punisher Strike inflicts damage to my opponent equal to the current ATK of all Meklord monsters I control!"

Mangler's chest opened up and shot a massive blast of red flames across the battlefield. The flames expanded outward as they headed for Rua and his dragon.

Sergey giggled. "I envy you, boy! You're about to experience a pain beyond all imagination!"

"Don't bet on it!" Rua told him.

Suddenly Life Stream Dragon roared and flexed his arms. The firestorm that was heading for Rua changed direction slightly and was sucked into the star in the center of the dragon's chest. In seconds, the star had consumed the entire maelstrom of flames and the star glowed even brighter.

Sergey was utterly shocked. "What happened? Why aren't you shrieking in pain?"

"As long as Life Stream is on the field, any effect damage I might take is negated and transformed into extra ATK points for my dragon!" Rua explained. "Thanks to your Trap, Life Stream Dragon's ATK just went up from 2900 to 6300!"

"Perhaps, but all that ATK is useless to you right now!" Sergey declared. "After the effect of Punisher Strike resolves, all of my Meklord monsters go into Defense Mode!"

"I activate Life Stream Dragon's other effect!" Rua announced. "By banishing Power Tool from the Graveyard, I can equip Life Stream with an Equip Spell from my deck or Graveyard! I banish Power Tool to equip Life Stream with Fairy Meteor Crush!"

A ghostly image of Power Tool flew down from above and entered Life Stream Dragon's body. The golden dragon roared as his body started to glow with a greenish aura.

"Now that Life Stream Dragon is equipped with Fairy Meteor Crush, he can deal piercing damage when attacking a monster in Defense Mode!" Rua announced. "And since Mangler only has 1000 DEF, one attack from Life Stream is enough to finish you off. Bet you suddenly wish you hadn't paid all those life points before, huh?"

The little color there was in Sergey's face drained away. "This… can't be."

"Life Stream Dragon! Attack that freak's last monster and end this!" Rua commanded. "Burning Life Spear!"

The crystal blade of Life Stream Dragon's weapon suddenly began to glow. The dragon flew across the battlefield and stabbed the blade into Mangler's chest just below the window. The giant machine's body sparked with electricity before exploding in a massive blast of flames. Sergey's life points dropped to zero in an instant, and the giant cried out as the device covering his ears shorted out. Smoke was rising from the sides of Sergey's head as he fell to the ground on his face.

With the duel finally at an end, Life Stream Dragon vanished. Rua smiled and turned to walk towards Hitomi and Ruka when he suddenly collapsed, causing both girls to become concerned. Hitomi immediately rushed to Rua's side while his twin remained where she was.

"Is he okay?" Ruka asked as Hitomi checked him over.

"He's breathing, but I don't know how hurt he really is," Hitomi answered. "He was electrocuted quite a bit during his duel with the intruder. We need to get both him and you to the infirmary. Can you walk?"

"I think so," Ruka answered as she slowly got up.

"Good. Then help me carry him," Hitomi requested. "Hopefully we won't have any trouble getting to the infirmary from here."

* * *

Crow was gazing at the card for Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon that he held in his hand. A few moments ago it had been glowing with a strange light; now it was back to normal. Crow didn't know why, but he thought that the light somehow had something to do with Rua. The fact that the light from the card had gone out concerned the redhead quite a bit. He thought about the three children he had failed to protect when Neo Domino had been taken over by Iliaster and wondered if perhaps that horror was now repeating itself.

"Hey Crow?" Carly spoke, shaking the redhead from his thoughts. "Most of the computers are now fully operational, but we still have no power and no way to contact the outside world."

"Any word from Ushio?" Crow asked.

Carly shook her head. "This really isn't looking good, is it?"

"No my dear. I'm afraid your little resistance movement has come to an end," a high-pitched voice interrupted. Carly and Crow looked to see the short man in the clown mask standing in the doorway. "But don't worry. Things are nowhere near as bad as you think. Once you give yourselves over to Iliaster, all of your fears will simply fade away."

"Who the hell are you?" Crow demanded to know.

The clown let out a creepy laugh. "It really has been a long time, Crow Hogan. You probably don't remember me, but we have met once before."

Suddenly the clown's mask split down the middle and opened up, revealing a chalk-white face with red lips and vertical red lines decorating his eyes.

"Wait a minute! You're Rex Goodwin's creepy little minion!" Crow realized. "The twerp he sent to scout Jack to be his pet champion."

"Ah! So our last encounter did leave an impression on you! I'm flattered," the clown replied. "In case you don't remember though, my name is Jaeger. And by the will of Iliaster, I've come to put an end to your little rebellion."

"Like hell!" Crow declared as he suddenly removed the sling from his broken right arm.

The redhead then reached under the table in the center of command center and pulled out a spare duel disk, which he put on and placed his deck in. Once that was done, Crow kicked a small red switch in the base of the table that caused it to retract into the floor.

"The only way you're taking us down is over my dead body!" Crow declared.

"Crow, what the hell are you doing?" Carly asked as she sprung from her chair. "You shouldn't be dueling in your condition!"

"It's not like I have much of a choice!" Crow pointed out.

"At least let me help you draw and play cards on the field!" Carly requested. "I did that for Jack when he was injured while we escaped from Neo Domino!"

"Stay out of this! I don't want you getting hurt because of this freak," Crow told her. "Even with this cast on, I can still draw. So just stay back! Protecting this base is my responsibility!"

"How noble," Jaeger remarked with a grin. "Fine. If you want to go down kicking and screaming, I can easily accommodate you."

The left side of the metal pack on Jaeger's back opened up, and extending out of it was a flexible metal swing arm with a long tray on the end. The arm positioned the tray in front of Jaeger, and the top of it revealed that it was the kind of tray used for duel disks. There was also a deck fitted into a slot on the edge of the device positioned for the clown's right hand.

"As Master Goodwin's herald, I shall teach you how futile it is to oppose his will!" Jaeger declared. "The will of Iliaster!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed the duel between Rua and Sergey. A big part of the reason why I did that duel was so I could have an alternate version of Life Stream Dragon show up in this story. Part of the reason Sergey was picked as Rua's opponent was so the dragon could appear in a duel with conditions similar to the ones in Rua, Ruka and Jack's duel against Aporia.

So the guy in the clown mask turned out to be Jaeger. Let's be honest here. I'm sure most of you reading saw that coming. In the next chapter, Crow and Jaeger will once again face one another. This'll be my second time writing a duel between these two characters, but with the new deck I have in mind for Jaeger, this next duel will hopefully be a pretty original one.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	28. Freak Show

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 28: Freak Show

"I shall go first," Jaeger announced. "For my first move, I summon Meklord Jester – Mimic Droid in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Jaeger's side of the field was a small floating robot with a height of only three feet. It was mostly white in color, and had a large head with a black screen on the front that displayed a face consisting of two large red dots for eyes and a U-shaped line that served as a smiling mouth. Atop the machine's disproportionately large head was a pointed had with a brass ball on the top and three flashing red lines around the sides. The chest of its small white torso had a black vertical infinity symbol on the front, and in place of legs the robot had a pointed silver cylindrical hover engine. The robot's short black cable-like arms ended with a pair of large white cylindrical hands, each with a set of three long silver prongs.

"Why'd he summon a monster with only 500 ATK in Attack Mode?" Carly asked.

"It must have some powerful special ability," Crow assumed.

"I can see you're already trembling at the sight of my monster, afraid of what it can do," Jaeger observed with a chuckle. "I shall set one card on the field and end my turn."

Crow winced a bit as he drew his first card. Drawing from his deck with his still injured arm was proving a little more painful than he thought it'd be.

"Before I go, I wanna know one thing… how the hell did you and Sergey Volkov even find this place?" Crow asked.

Jaeger let out another high-pitched laugh. "You and your little band of resistance fighters let us know yourselves. Of course it wasn't an easy task figuring out exactly where your base was. We knew that you had to be in this general area, but to get an exact location we needed to draw you out. To do that, Master Goodwin decided to give you all a target too big to resist."

A chill went down Crow's spine. "Wait. You don't mean…"

"That's right! We let your resistance network obtain the security codes to our major droid factories all over the world!" Jaeger revealed. "Such facilities are easily replicable with the technology at Iliaster's disposal. Our factories were a small sacrifice to find the location of your base. Once we knew you had the data, all we had to do was leave a cloaked surveillance probe in the skies around this area and wait for you to send an army to eliminate our factory. Once we saw just where your army came from, Sergey and myself were able to burrow in from beneath."

"Well if you wanted us to have those codes so badly, why send Aten and that army of droids to attack our convoy?" Crow asked.

"It was simply too good of an opportunity to weaken your forces in advance," Jaeger answered. "We would've let a few of you go and take the security codes back to your base like poison being taken back to a colony of ants. Even if your branch of the resistance was too weak to join in the assault, the other branches would've still jumped at the opportunity to use those codes and make their own positions vulnerable."

"What're you saying?" Carly asked.

Jaeger let out another high-pitched laugh. "Did you think your little base here was our only target? Our objective was to eliminate every single branch of your resistance! Sergey and I are part of a special group of Iliaster soldiers known a Freak Show. Unlike the droids, the members of Freak Show are capable of more independent thought in order to outwit and overpower our opponents, though we are also still linked to the collective. Master Goodwin organized the group with me as its leader for the sole purpose of eliminating rogue resistance groups like yours. I must say. You've proven to be a much greater challenge than originally expected."

"So you're saying that all of the other resistance branches have been attacked?" Crow asked.

"All of the other bases have fallen by this time," Jaeger answered. "When the armies from those bases return, they will find that their fellow resistance members have been made a part of the collective. Even the strongest duelists those branches have will fall before the two-man teams of my unit that was sent to infiltrate those locations. With the exception of myself, each member of Freak Show is a ruthless criminal duelist like Sergey. You should all simply face facts. Your rebellion ends here."

"Like hell!" Crow declared. "There's no way I'm letting it all end here! I'm going to kick you and that psycho giant of yours out of here!"

"You're more than welcome to try," Jaeger dared. "But I don't think you really have it in you, Crow. I can tell just by looking at you. You're frightened of us."

"That's what you think!" Crow told him. "For my first move, I summon Blackwing – Breeze the Zephyr in Attack Mode!"

Materializing on Crow's side of the battlefield was a fairly small bipedal bird-like creature covered in bright orange feathers. It had a peach colored face with two large orange eyes, and a head of long orange feathers like hair. The creature's arms were a pair of wings covered in long orange yellow feathers, and it had a pair of large talons for feet.

"Because I have a Blackwing monster on the field, I special summon Blackwing – Bora the Spear!" Crow announced.

On cue, Crow's lance-wielding Blackwing warrior appeared on the field next to Breeze.

"I tune the level three Breeze into the level four Bora for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Crow announced.

Breeze flashed and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Bora and transformed the bird warrior into four white stars.

"Spread your jet-black wings, and storm forth in tandem with the roaring thunder! Slash apart the lightning!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Cascade, Assault Blackwing – Raikiri the Rain Shower!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal Crow's sword-wielding Blackwing.

"At this moment, I activate a Trap, Jester Thief Trick!" Jaeger announced. "When my opponent Synchro Summons a monster in the presence of one of my Meklords, Jester Thief Trick sends a random monster from your Extra Deck to the Graveyard and allows me to summon another Meklord Jester from my deck. I summon another Meklord Jester – Mimic Droid!"

A second copy of Mimic Droid appeared next to the first one with a flash of pink light.

"It doesn't matter how many of those creepy little robots you have on the field!" Crow declared. "I use Raikiri to attack the first Mimic Droid!"

Raikiri flew across the field with his sword raised above his head. Just as the bird warrior came in striking distance, the Mimic Droid cackled in a high-pitched electronic voice and zapped Raikiri with a beam of yellow light from the ball atop its pointed hat. Upon being struck in the chest, Raikiri's body rippled before exploding into particles of yellow light that reassembled into Breeze and Bora.

"What… what the hell?" Crow exclaimed. "What just happened?"

Jaeger let out another high-pitched cackle. "That was the power of Mimic Droid's fear beam. When Mimic Droid does battle with a Synchro Monster, that monster is automatically sent to the Graveyard and its summoning materials are summoned back to the field in Attack Mode with zero ATK and DEF. In other words, my Mimic Droids use the power of fear to break down the bonds holding your Synchro Monsters together. Now the monsters you used to bring forth Raikiri are powerless; totally paralyzed by fear, just as you soon shall be."

Crow scowled. "I set two cards on the field and end my turn."

* * *

Ruka and Hitomi made their way carefully through the corridors of the base, carrying a still unconscious Rua between them. The emergency lights mounted where the walls met the ceiling provided little light for the two to see where they were going, but they felt confident that they were heading in the right direction to the infirmary. Ruka's head still hurt from when Sergey threw her into the tree in the arboretum, but she was having no trouble remaining conscious. Still, there was a strong chance that the blow she had suffered had caused some serious damage. The green-haired girl knew that both she and her brother needed medical attention as quickly as possible.

As the girls turned a corner, they saw a large figure lying in the middle of the floor unconscious. Hitomi and Ruka immediately recognized who the figure was when they got close enough.

"Mr. Ushio!" Hitomi identified.

"You think he was also attacked by the man who came after us?" Ruka asked.

"Seems likely," Hitomi answered. "We should check to see if he's okay."

After gently laying Rua on the floor, the girls went over to check on the fallen security officer. Ruka could see Ushio's chest moving up and down, which meant that he was still alive. Hitomi began to shake Ushio's shoulder, repeating his name again and again in an attempt to rouse him. After a few moments, the muscular officer began to stir.

Ushio groaned as he sat up and held his head. "Oh man! I guess the fact that I hurt this much means I'm still alive." He then finally noticed the girls. "Hey! What're you kids doing out here? You should be taking shelter in your quarters like everyone else."

"We were on our way to our rooms when an intruder attacked us," Hitomi explained.

"Rua managed to beat him in a duel and knock him out, but he got pretty badly hurt in the process," Rua added. "We were trying to get to the infirmary when we found you."

"So, the kid managed to beat that little clown, huh?" Ushio assumed as he got to his feet. "I'm really starting to slip in my old age, not that that twerp was a wimp."

"Little clown? The person who Rua beat was a muscular giant," Hitomi informed him. "He had white hair and yellow criminal markings all over his face."

Ushio's eyed widened in total amazement. "You… you're kidding me! You're really saying that… that the kid actually defeated Sergey Volkov?"

"Wait, I've heard that name before," Ruka recalled. "He was that criminal who only Anastasia could beat, right?"

Ushio nodded. "The guy was a total monster. Except for Ana, every opponent Sergey faced was left completely broken. I'm not saying you girls are making things up, but I find it pretty hard to believe that a kid like Rua could beat that animal."

"He had the help of some kind of dragon we hadn't seen before," Hitomi told him.

"How Rua beat this guy isn't important!" Ruka told them. "The only thing that matters right now is getting him to a doctor."

"Yeah… good point," Ushio agreed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well then, I better make sure you all get there."

With that, Ushio picked Rua up in his muscular arms and led the girls down the corridor towards the infirmary.

"So who was this short clown you were talking about?" Ruka asked.

"Some accomplice of Sergey's. I don't know who he was," Ushio answered. "His voice seemed familiar though. Whoever that freak was though, he totally thrashed me."

"And you don't know where he went?" Ruka asked.

"Not a clue. I was knocked out as soon as he beat me," Ushio answered. "I sure hope that Crow and Carly are doing okay right now. Chances are that clown has gone after them. If they're facing him, then they've got a nasty fight on their hands."

* * *

Jaeger drew his next card. "For my first move, I summon a third Mimic Droid to the field in Attack Mode."

On cue, another small clown-like robot materialized next to the other two Mimic Droids.

"Next I activate the effect of my first Mimic Droid," Jaeger announced. "Mimic Droid has the power to equip itself with a Synchro Monster from my opponent's Graveyard and assume its form. I use the first Mimic Droid to steal the identity of Blackwing – Raikiri the Rain Shower!"

The first Mimic Droid began to cackle as the sphere at the top of its pointed hat began to flash with a pinkish-red light. In seconds, a pinkish energy expanded from the orb and enveloped the small robot. The light grew and changed shape before fading away to reveal Raikiri, only the Blackwing swordsman looked different. His eyes had become bright orange and his face chalk-white. A purple star was painted around his left eye, and his lips had become ruby red. Raikiri's mouth had become a twisted grin that showed a set of yellow teeth.

"My first Mimic Droid has now become Mimic Raikiri," Jaeger announced. "Its ATK and DEF points are now exactly the same as the original Raikiri's. Oh but don't worry. Each Mimic Droid can only be equipped with one Synchro Monster at a time. But then that's why I have more than one. I activate the effect of my second Mimic Droid and equip it with the monster sent to the Graveyard by Jester Thief Trick, Blackwing – Naginata the Morning Frost!"

A light from the second Mimic Droid's hat began to flash, and in moments it was enveloped in a pinkish energy that expanded and changed shape, fading seconds later to reveal an altered Naginata. His steel-grey eyes had turned bright green, and the mouth of his beak had twisted into a large deformed grin that showed yellow teeth. Large red lips like those of a clown had also been painted onto Naginata's beak.

"And now the Battle Phase!" Jaeger announced. "I use Mimic Naginata to attack Breeze the Zephyr!"

"I activate my Trap, Urgent Tuning!" Crow announced as Naginata flew across the battlefield with the blade of his pole raised. "Using this card, I tune the level three Breeze into the level four Bora for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Breeze flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Bora and transformed the bird lancer into four white stars.

"Wet those pitch-black wings! Along with the drizzling rain, bring forth one strike of lightning!" Crow chanted. "Syncrho Summon! Pierce through, Assault Blackwing – Chidori the Rain Sprinkling!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the air. The pillar expanded outward before fading away to reveal Crow's other Blackwing swordsman.

"Chidori gains 300 ATK for each Blackwing in my Graveyard!" Crow announced. "Since I have two Blackwings in my Graveyard right now, Chidori's ATK is at 3200! That makes him stronger than those two knockoff Blackwings of yours!"

Jaeger let out a high-pitched laugh. "Oh how droll! How utterly predictable! In case you hadn't noticed, my dear Crow, the ATK points of any Synchro Monster mean nothing to my monsters. I use my final Mimic Droid to attack Chidori!"

The third Mimic Droid let out an electronic cackle as it zapped Chidori in the chest with a yellow beam of light from its pointed hat. Chidori's body rippled up being hit and shattered apart into particles of light that reassembled into Breeze and Bora.

"If you recall, any Synchro Monster that does battle with my Mimic Droids is instantly sent to the Graveyard, and its material monsters are summoned back to the field in Attack Mode with zero ATK," Jaeger reminded him. "In other words, that little maneuver with Urgent Tuning changed nothing! In fact you've only dug a deeper grave for yourself by summoning Chidori."

"What's that mean?" Carly asked.

Crow scowled. "On his next turn, that little creep will just equip the final Mimic Droid with Chidori."

"Not that there will be a next turn," Jaeger told him. "This should end fairly quickly. I attack Breeze the Zephyr with Mimic Raikiri!"

Raikiri cackled as he flew across the field and slashed Breeze down the middle with his sword. The two halves shattered into particles of gold light and Crow's life points dropped to 1400.

"And now for my Mimic Droid's other effect to kick in!" Jaeger announced. "Whenever my Mimic Droid's destroy a Tuner, my opponent takes damage equal to the destroyed Tuner's level times 300!"

Raikiri charged at Crow and in a flash, slashed him across the chest with his blade. The redhead cried out as he fell onto his back. His life points had fallen to a mere 500. Carly was about to rush over to Crow's side when he managed to sit back up. After a few moments, Crow had gotten back to his feet, but the attack had caused his still not totally healed wounds to cry out in pain.

"And now for the finishing blow," Jaeger announced. "Mimic Naginata attacks Bora!"

"I activate my Trap, Blackwing Escape Feathers!" Crow announced as Naginata charged across the field. "This card lets me tribute a Blackwing monster to summon a number of Feather Tokens in Defense Mode equal to that Blackwing's level!"

Just as Naginata swung the blade of his weapon towards Bora's head, Bora shattered apart into a storm of black feathers. All but four of the feathers blew away in the wind.

Jaeger chuckled. "My, my. You are a tough one. But that's fine. I was rather hoping to draw this out for a while. I use Mimic Naginata to attack one of your little feather tokens."

Naginata slashed the Feather Token on the far left in half before flying back over to Jaeger's side of the field. Meanwhile, the two pieces of the destroyed token shattered into particles of gold light.

"That ends my turn," Jaeger announced. "It's your move Crow, not that you can do much of anything. I've got you backed into a nice little corner and nothing you try can change that."

Crow winced as he drew his next card. "I play the Spell card, Cards for Black Feathers! By banishing a Blackwing monster from my hand, I can draw two more cards from my deck!"

"Desperate, aren't we?" Jaeger remarked. "Go right ahead. No card you draw can help you now."

Crow drew two more cards from his deck and scowled. "I… I set a card on the field and end my turn."

"That's right! You're completely and utterly powerless!" Jaeger declared as he laughed and drew his next card. "I activate the effect of my third and final Mimic Droid and equip it with Blackwing – Chidori the Rain Sprinkling!"

The third Mimic Droid let out an electronic cackled as it became enveloped in an expanded pinkish light from its pointed hat. The light changed shaped until it finally faded to reveal a transformed Chidori. The bird swordsman's face had been painted chalk-white and his eyes had become bright orange. His lips had become ruby red and a green crescent moon had been painted around his right eye. Chidori's mouth was twisted into a mad grin that showed a set of yellow teeth.

"Prepare yourself, Crow! The end of your individual existence shall soon be at an end!" Jaeger declared. "Soon you will have no choice to become a part of Iliaster!"

* * *

Jack and the rest of the raiding party were driving at top speed back towards the base. During the trip, Saiga had repeatedly tried to raise the base on the radio to no avail. The silence seemed to confirm that something had gone terribly wrong.

Andre pulled up alongside Jack to talk to him. "I don't like this. Nothing from home base, and it's going to take us at least a couple days to reach them at top speed."

"What choice do we have?" Jack asked him.

"We go to one of the emergency shelters that Saiga and Sid set up and use that to come up with a new plan," Andre suggested.

You can run and hide if you want, but I'm going on ahead!" Jack told him. "There's no way in hell I'm going to let Carly our anyone else back at the base be taken by those mechanical bastards! I'm taking back our base even if I have to tear apart every security droid I face with my bare hands!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment of Crow and Jaeger's duel. I apologize that this chapter was a tad short compared to previous chapters, but it just kind of worked out that way. Anyway, the inspiration for Jaeger's deck in this story ended up coming to me while I was working on Chapter 26. As I was working on one of the early scenes for that chapter, I realized that in this story, Crow has been a character ruled by fear. He hasn't been consumed by his fear, but some could say that he's been overly cautions during parts of this story. That's when it hit me to use fear as the theme of Jaeger's deck. Well, fear and clowns, but then a lot of people are afraid of clowns.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	29. Black Flames of Courage

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 29: Black Flames of Courage

"And now for the final act of our duel," Jaeger declared. "I attack two of your Feather Tokens with Mimic Raikiri and Mimic Naginata!"

The false clown versions of Naginata and Raikiri flew across the battlefield and sliced two of Crow's Feather Tokens in half with their blades. The two halves of each cut feather shattered into particles of gold light as the Blackwing warriors flew back to Jaeger's side of the field.

"I use Mimic Chidori to attack the final Feather Token!" Jaeger announced.

Chidori cackled madly as he flew across the field and slashed the remaining feather to ribbons. Just like before, the remains of the feather shattered into particles of gold light.

"That's it? In case you haven't noticed, I still have life points and your fake Blackwings used up their attacks on my Feather Tokens," an unconcerned Crow pointed out. "Looks like this duel has at least one act left."

Jaeger chuckled. "How shortsighted you are, Crow. I said I would be ending the duel this turn, and meant it! I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Jester Encore! When one of my Meklord Jesters destroys a monster in battle, Jester Encore allows my monster to make a second attack this turn! Mimic Chidori! Slice Crow to ribbons and end this!"

The fake Chidori let out another cackle and flew across the battlefield to deliver the killing blow.

"Crap!" Crow exclaimed. "I activate my Trap! Feather Chaff! By banishing a Blackwing monster from my Graveyard, I negate your monster's attack! The monster I choose to banish is Breeze the Zephyr!"

Just as Chidori was about to swing his sword down onto Crow's head, and explosion of black feathers went off in front of the redhead and forced the false Blackwing back. A powerful wind picked up and a storm of black feathers covered Jaeger's side of the battlefield. When the storm finally cleared a few seconds later, all three of the clown's monsters were in a kneeling position.

"What?" a stunned Jaeger exclaimed. "What on earth did you do?"

"When a Tuner is banished from the Graveyard to activate the effect of Feather Chaff, all of my opponent's monsters get switched to Defense Mode," Crow explained. "Looks like you were the one who was shortsighted."

After a moment, Jaeger let out another high-pitched laugh. "I have to admit it, Crow. You're much more tenacious than I thought. But I guess I should've expected that, considering how long you and your little band of rebels have eluded us. Despite your tenacity though, the fact is you shall never defeat me. You know why? Because you fear me Crow! You fear me and all of Iliaster!"

"I'm not afraid of a little twerp like you!" Crow told him. "I mean sure, you creep me the hell out. But I'm not so freaked out by you that I can't beat you."

"My, my. The powers of denial and self-delusion certainly are strong," Jaeger remarked with a chuckle. "You can tell yourself that you don't fear me, but I can tell for a fact that you are. Of course your fear only proves how smart you truly are. It's obvious to anyone that defeating Iliaster is impossible, for we are the most powerful force this world has ever seen. But you Crow have let your fear rule you. It's clear from the way you've run your little resistance group and even in the way you duel. All this time you've been fighting a defensive battle against the forces of Iliaster, and all you've done is dug yourself into a hole you can't get out of."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Crow told him.

"Now, now. There's simply no need to get so riled up," Jaeger assured him. "Your fear is nothing to be ashamed of. Fear is the most natural response people have to something they don't understand. You fear Iliaster because you don't understand what we're offering the world, and what we offer is nothing more than paradise. Though us, the world will achieve true unity and understanding."

"Like hell! All you're doing is trying to enslave everyone!" Crow shot back. "We'd be nothing more than cogs in some cold emotionless machine!"

Jaeger merely shook his head. "How little you truly understand us. Iliaster is nothing like that at all. Frank, Amanda and Tanner certainly don't feel that way."

Crow went totally pale. "What… what're you talking about?"

"Those were the three urchins you were looking after before Master Goodwin established the collective, were they not?" Jaeger asked. "They're quite happy as part of the collective, but they also miss you very much. They keep wondering when you'll finally join them."

"You're… you're lying!" Crow shot back. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

"Oh, but I do Crow. I may have retained a greater degree of individuality, but I'm still linked to the collective," Jaeger told him. "I accessed the minds of your three young charges as we started talking, and I know for a fact that they all miss you deeply. They keep wondering where you are."

"Shut up!" Crow shouted. "Just shut your damn mouth about them!"

"You should just make it easier on yourself and surrender," Jaeger calmly told him. "When you do, I'll personally see to it that you join those poor children of yours in the collective. I'll just end my turn here and let you decide what to do next. It would be wise if you simply surrendered though. After all, you know you can't beat me, and you'd only needlessly be prolonging the suffering of your three young friends if you did."

Crow looked at the top of his deck, wondering if he should bother to draw his next card. "Maybe… maybe it would just be easier to give up now. I mean the base has fallen… and if Frank, Amanda and Tanner need me that badly…"

"There's no shame in giving up," Jaeger told him. "You'd only be making it harder on everyone if you kept going."

"Crow! Don't listen to that creepy little twerp! He's just trying to get into your head!" Carly told him. "If you gave up now, what hope would the rest of us have?"

"Yeah, but… you heard what he said about Frank and the others," Crow pointed out. "Those kids are wondering where I am. If I just give up now… I could join them… and tell them how sorry I am that I let them down and left them behind."

"Did you ever think that those kids are wondering where you are because they want you to rescue them from that living hell they're stuck in?" Carly asked. "If you give up now, you'd truly be letting them down! Ask yourself this Crow! Would those kids really want you to give up, or would they want you to keep fighting?"

Jaeger let out another creepy high-pitched laugh. "Your words are wasted here, young lady. Crow knows exactly what he has to do."

The redhead slowly brought the hand of his injured arm towards his duel disk, looking as though he were about to place his hand atop his deck and surrender. At the very last moment though, Crow pulled another card from his deck, and a gust of wind seemed to form around him as he did so.

Crow looked across the field at Jaeger with a steely gaze. "Thanks Carly. You're right. Those kids would totally chew me out if I showed my back to this little creep. So I'm not giving up until the last card is drawn!"

Jaeger chuckled and shook his head. "Oh dear. And just when it seemed as though I had talked some sense into you. Ah well. If you're truly determined to do things the hard way, I'm more than willing to accommodate you."

"I summon Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North in Attack Mode!" Crow announced.

Materializing on Crow's side of the field was a fairly large plump bird with a long yellow beak and a body covered in ice-blue feathers. It had beady eyes and a long blue tuft of feathers atop its head. The feathers along the edges of the bird's wings were black, and it had two bushy black eyebrows along with a tuft of black feathers on its forehead.

"When Blizzard has been normal summoned to the field, I can summon a level four or lower Blackwing from my Graveyard!" Crow announced. "I use Blizzard to bring back Blackwing – Bora the Spear!"

Blizzard flew up and perched himself on Crow's arm. After landing, the blue bird pecked on Crow's duel disk twice, and a pillar of black energy shot up from the ground on Crow's side of the field. The energy quickly faded to reveal Crow's Blackwing lancer.

"I tune the level two Blizzard into the level four Bora for a level six Synchro Summon!" Crow announced.

Blizzard flew off Crow's arm and flashed orange before transforming into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Bora and changed the bird warrior into four white stars.

"Spread your jet-black wings and slice through the moonlit sky with your razor-sharp quills!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Slash! Assault Blackwing – Shuriken the Midnight Twister!"

The stars flashed and became a twister of black wind that expanded outward, subsiding seconds later to reveal a warrior clad in a black bird-like costume. Covering his head was a black mask resembling the head of a bird with red eyes, a long straight yellow beak, and a crest of three long light-blue razor-sharp feathers on its forehead. A black cloth covered the lower half of the warrior's actual face, and his left eye was blue while his right eye was scarred shut. A piece of iron-grey armor with large white shoulder pads covered his torso, and hanging down the front of his waist by a white belt was a dark-blue breechcloth with a white star-like symbol decorating the front. The bird warrior's upper legs were covered in pieces of iron-grey armor, while his lower legs were covered in black feathers, and he had yellow talons with black claws in place of normal feet. On his back was a pair of large black wings with long shiny grey blade-like feathers on their edges. His tail feathers were made of the same razor-sharp blades, and his hands were a pair of yellow talons.

"Not a bad monster," Jaeger remarked. "Of course it only has 2300 ATK. And even though my Mimic Droids are currently in Defense Mode, that bird ninja of yours will simply go to the Graveyard the moment it does battle with any of them."

Crow smirked. "I don't plan to attack any of those robotic identity thieves of yours. My opponent only has face-up Defense Mode monsters on his field, Shuriken can attack directly!"

"What!" a stunned Jaeger exclaimed.

"Shuriken! Attack that freaky little clown!" Crow commanded. "Razor Star Feather Strike!"

Shuriken dashed across the field at lightning speed and jumped onto the kneeling Raikiri's shoulders. Using the false Blackwing as a ramp, the bird ninja leapt high into the air and threw three silver star-shaped blades down at Jaeger. The clown crossed his arms in front of himself to try and shield himself from the attack, but the blades struck their target and took his life points down to 1700. Just as Jaeger recovered from being hit, Shuriken landed atop the clown's head with his right foot and used him to launch himself back towards Crow's side of the field while nearly knocking Jaeger off his feet. Shuriken somersaulted through air before landing on his left foot and posing like a crane about to take flight.

"You little…" Jaeger grumbled through clenched teeth while giving Crow a death glare. "It'll take more than cheap shots like that to win this duel!"

"I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Assault Feather Bombardment!" Crow announced. "When my opponent takes damage while I have a face-up Assault Blackwing on the field, all of my opponent's face-up monsters are destroyed!"

On cue, Shuriken switched to his right foot and took off into the air. Flapping his wings, the bird ninja caused a barrage of razor-sharp blade-like feathers to rain down on all three of Jaeger's monsters. Upon being hit, all three of Jaeger's monsters exploded in a blast of fire and smoke. With his task done, Shuriken landed back on the ground and went into a kneeling position.

"The downside to Assault Feather Bombardment is that all of my monsters go into Defense Mode after it's used," Crow continued. "But the important thing is that those Mimic Droids of yours are now in the scrapheap. I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

Jaeger sighed as he drew his next card. "Well Crow… I was hoping to make this easy on you, but it looks like I'm going to have to drag you into the collective kicking and screaming. Because my opponent controls a Synchro Monster, I can special summon my most powerful monster from my hand! Take the stage, Meklord Jester – Puppet Operator!"

Suddenly materializing behind Jaeger was a large mechanical object with a white cone-shaped base decorated with large lavender dots. Its midsection was a thick black metal rod, and it had a white five-sided torso with a rounded top and bottom. Atop the machine was a white head supported by a thin black metal rod for a neck. The face of this head was a black screen showing a face with two red pixilated dots for eyes and lines that formed a grinning mouth full of fangs. Atop the machine's head was a conical white had with a red line spiraling up the side and a large gold sphere on top.

"A level eight monster with zero ATK and DEF?" Carly observed with a raised eyebrow.

"It won't have zero ATK for long!" Jaeger declared. "I activate Puppet Operator's effect! Once per turn, I can banish any number of Meklord Jester monsters from my Graveyard, I can equip Puppet Operator with an equal number of Synchro Monsters from my opponent's Graveyard! I banish all three of my fallen Mimic Droids to equip Puppet Operator with Raikiri, Chidori and Naginata!"

The three sides on the front of Puppet Operator's torso opened up, and from each section extended a pair of thin grey mechanical arms. Each of the arms extended with a metal cross-shaped attachment attached to the wrist by a large ball joint. Strings of blue energy extended from all four points of each cross. In seconds, the strings from each pair of arms joined together into a ball of blue light that expanded and changed shape. When the lights faded, a wooden puppet version of Crow's fallen Blackwings was dangling from each pair of metal arms.

"Puppet Operator gains 1000 ATK for each Synchro Monster equipped to it," Jaeger announced. "Furthermore, the ATK and DEF of all Synchro Monsters on the field are halved by Puppet Operator's aura of fear. And now, Puppet Operator! Destroy that pathetic ninja! Fiend Puppet Show!"

Puppet Operator moved the manipulator arms on the very front of its torso, and the Raikiri puppet flew forward with his sword raised.

"I activate Shuriken's effect!" Crow announced. "Twice per turn when Shuriken is attacked, I can banish another Blackwing monster from my Graveyard to negate that attack! I banish Bora from the Graveyard to stop your freaky puppet!"

Just as the Raikiri puppet swung his sword down towards Shuriken's head, the Blackwing ninja became enveloped in a cloud of white spoke. The smoke cleared and the puppet Blackwing's blade cut into a short thick log. As the two halves of the split log dropped to the ground, Shuriken reappeared in another cloud of smoke only a few inches away.

"Nice try, but not good enough!" Crow declared.

Jaeger let out another high-pitched laugh. "I forgot to mention that Puppet Operator can make an attack each turn equal to the number of Synchro Monsters its equipped with! Therefore I have Puppet Operator attack Shuriken again! Fiend Puppet Show!"

"I activate Shuriken's effect again and banish Blizzard from the Graveyard to negate your attack!" Crow announced.

The manipulator arms from the left segment of Puppet Operator's torso moved, causing the puppet version of Chidori flew across the field as he raised his sword. Just as Puppet Chidori's blade swung down towards Shuriken's head, the bird ninja once again became enveloped in a cloud of white smoke and the puppet's sword sliced into another small log. Shuriken reappeared as the two cut pieces of wood dropped to the ground with a clunk.

"Your struggles are useless!" Jaeger declared. "Shurkien can only use its effects to negate an enemy attack twice per turn, and Puppet Operator still has one more attack left! Puppet Operator! Rid the field of that annoying ninja once and for all! Fiend Puppet Show!"

Puppet Operator moved the manipulator arms from the right segment of its torso, and the puppet of Naginata flew across the battlefield with the blade of his poll weapon pointed right at Shuriken.

"I activate my Trap! Leader of the Flock!" Crow announced. "When a Blackwing Tuner is attacked, Leader of the Flock negates that attack at the cost of reducing that Tuner's level by two! And because Shuriken was Synchro Summoned, he's treated as a Tuner while he's on the field!"

Just as the Naginata puppet was about to strike, a twister of black wind appeared around Shuriken. The force of the twister repelled Naginata's blade and forced the puppet back over to Jaeger's side of the field.

"Because Leader of the Flock was used on an Assault Blackwing monster, I can special summon another Blackwing from my deck in Defense Mode!" Crow announced. "I summon Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame!"

The twister of black wing finally subsided and revealed that another monster had appeared next to Shuriken. The monster in question was a thin black and grey bipedal bird with a blue head that had a large blue-grey bead and a streak of orange-red feathers on its forehead. It had very thin almost bone-like yellow upper arms, and thick purple forearms ending with long grey claws. The creature's thin yellow lower legs were double-jointed and ended with small talons. On its back was a pair of large black wings, and on its rear end it had a set of long black tail feathers.

"Well, I suppose at this point I have no choice but to end my turn here," Jaeger announced. "But it doesn't matter what you do on your next turn, Crow. I have you right where I want you."

Crow drew his next card. "I'm ending this right now! I tune the now level four Shuriken into the level four Shura for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Shuriken flashed orange and changed into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Shura and transformed the birdman into four white stars.

"The ebony flames become the wings of resolved hope that rise from the ashes of despair!" Crow chanted. "Synchro Summon! Soar, Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of black flames that expanded outward. In seconds the flames subsided and Crow's bird-headed dragon appeared with a roar.

"That's your ace monster, isn't it?" Jaeger recalled. "It was rather pointless to summon it now. You forget that because Puppet Operator is on the field, your dragon's ATK and DEF are cut in half by the fear it generates. It's powerless in the face of fear! Just as you have been!"

"Okay… you got me. I have been afraid of you and the rest of that collective of yours," Crow admitted. "I still am. I've been afraid of losing the few things I managed to save when you guys took over. But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna fight you with everything I've got! I attack Puppet Operator with Black-Winged Dragon!"

"Going out in a blaze of glory, eh?" Jaeger asked with a laugh.

"That's what you think!" Crow declared. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Ebony Battle Flame! When Black-Winged Dragon or a level six or higher Blackwing Synchro Monster attacks a monster, Ebony Battle Flame destroys that monster at the start of the battle!"

Black-Winged Dragon flew towards Puppet Operator as his body suddenly became enveloped in pitch-black flames. The dragon collided into Puppet Operator's torso like a missile and the robot exploded in a blast of black fire and smoke. The three Blackwing puppets quickly went up in flames as well and were all reduced to ashes in a matter of seconds.

The little color there was in Jaeger's face drained away. "This… this can't be!"

"And that's not the best part!" Crow declared with a triumphant smirk. "When the effect of Ebony Battle flame resolves, the monster it was used on can make a second attack this turn!"

The black flames covering Jaeger's side of the field were suddenly scattered away and Black-Winged Dragon reappeared. Jaeger's eyes went wide with terror.

"Black-Winged Dragon! Roast that clown and end this!" Crow commanded. "Ebony Phoenix Flare!"

Black-Winged Dragon opened his beak and breathed out a stream of flames down at Jaeger. The little clown screamed and the sides of his helmet sparked with electricity as his life points dropped from 1700 to zero. With the duel finally at an end, Black-Winged Dragon vanished from the field and Jaeger fell to the ground.

An exhausted Crow fell to his knees. "Man! That was intense."

"You okay?" Carly asked as she went over to his side.

"Yeah. I think so," Crow answered. "You better get ahold of Ushio and see how he's doing. Hopefully he's gotten rid of our other unwanted houseguest while I was dealing with this clown."

* * *

It was just over two days before Jack and the rest of the raiding party finally arrived back at the base. By that time, Crow and Ushio had gotten the facility mostly up and running again. Jaeger and Sergey had both been secured in makeshift prison cells and had not woken up once since being defeated. One of the base's doctors had determined that the implants that had connected the duo to Iliaster had shorted out upon being defeated. Not long after Jack and Aki had gotten back, Crow and Carly had told them about everything that happened.

"…Well, it seems that Goodwin is a lot craftier than even I thought," Jack remarked with a scowl as he looked at one of the still inactive monitors of the command center. "I can't believe we fell into a trap like that."

"Carly, have you been able to get in touch with the other resistance branches?" Aki asked.

"Afraid not," Carly answered as she shook her head. "The communication system is back up, but I haven't been able to reach any of the other bases. I hate to say it, but I think the other Freak Show units were successful. The other resistance branches have probably been wiped out."

"We probably would've bought it too if I hadn't been able to beat Jaeger," Crow remarked. "And if Rua hadn't been able to beat Sergey. I can't believe the kid's really that tough."

"No kidding. Anastasia's very impressed with him," Aki noted.

"So if we're the only branch of the resistance left, what's our next move?" Jack asked.

"Well… it may be stupid considering everything that's happened, but I think we need to go on the offensive now more than ever," Crow decided. "We need to end Iliaster now! And the only way to take down the whole organization is to attack its heart. We're gonna invade Neo Domino City!"

Jack smirked. "It's about time you grew a backbone. So how do we go about this?"

"That I don't know yet," Crow answered. "Carly, call Ushio and the others and have them get back here ASAP. We've got some planning to do."

* * *

Evening was just setting in as Sherry headed for the cabin's small dining table. As the blonde walked past the living room area, she glanced and noticed that Yugo and Rin had dozed off together on the couch. Sherry couldn't help but smile a bit at the sight of the two cuddled up next to one another. She thought for a moment about waking the couple up for dinner, but decided to leave them alone and quietly went over to join Bruno at the table.

"They really do make a cute couple," Sherry quietly remarked.

"Yes. And Yugo's mental state has really started to improve," Bruno added.

"…So how much longer do you think we'll be able to hide out here?" Sherry suddenly asked.

"Probably not long," Bruno answered darkly. "Iiliaster's territory has been spreading more and more. It's only a matter of time before we'll have to abandon this place."

"That's a real shame," Sherry declared as she looked back over at Rin and Yugo. "That means those two will have to be pulled back into the fighting soon."

"It can't be helped," Bruno told her. "Whether it's tomorrow or two years from now, Yugo and Rin will have to rejoin the battle sooner or later. If they never do, then the human race as we once knew it will be finished."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** That finally concludes the little Infiltration arc of this story. Sorry it took so long for me to finish, but things have been just a little hectic for me these last couple of months. I hope everyone enjoyed the conclusion to Crow and Jaeger's duel. In our next installment, Yugo and Rin will be back in the spotlight, as will their bodyguards. Until then, stay tuned.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	30. Shattered Peace

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 30: Shattered Peace

Night had fallen upon Bruno and Sherry's remote cabin in the mountains. The outside world was pitch-black and a cold snowy wind howled through the land, while the inside of the cabin was warm and cozy. Yugo and Rin were cuddled together on a couch with a blanket wrapped around them. The lights were dim as the two watched a film from Bruno's movie collection on the T.V.; a B-movie from the mid 1980s called _The Wraith_. Meanwhile, Sherry and Bruno were sitting at the kitchen table enjoying some hot chocolate.

Sherry glanced over at the couple on the couch and shook her head. "I can't believe those two actually chose to watch that lame sci-fi racing movie of yours. I mean what the heck do you see in that piece of cheese?"

"Are you kidding? The supernatural car in that the central character of the movie drives is a fascinating concept of engineering." Bruno declared.

"Maybe, but they don't explain where the car came from or how that guy was even brought back from the dead," Sherry pointed out. "I mean was he brought back by a passing alien ship or some force from the afterlife? And if it was some angel or demon or whatever, why was the car they gave him so techno?"

"It's better if you don't overthink it," Bruno told her as he took another sip from his cup.

"Well… it does have a romantic ending, at least," Sherry admitted before taking another sip from her own cup. "So… how much longer do you think it'll be before Iliaster finally finds us?"

"Probably not long," Bruno answered darkly. "I've been running daily checks on the detection grid to make sure it's operational. So far everything's quiet, but I doubt it'll remain that way for much longer."

"It's too bad," Sherry remarked as she looked back over at Rin and Yugo on the couch. Rin had just given Yugo a peck on the cheek. "After everything those two have been through, it sucks that those two will have to go back into combat."

"It just can't be helped, Sherry," Bruno told her. "Besides, Yugo and Rin may be our key to ending this once and for all."

"I know all that, but it doesn't mean I have to like it," Sherry replied. "Looks like those two will have to enjoy nights like this while they can."

* * *

Rin had taken to sleeping in Yugo's bed each night as a way to help alleviate his nightmares about the time he spent as Aten of Iliaster. Though their relationship still hadn't reached the physical level, the two took great comfort in having one another close. Dawn had only just broken over the horizon when the couple was suddenly awakened by the noise of a siren sounding in their room. Yugo and Rin instantly shot up in bed to try and see what was making the sound.

The door to the room burst open and Sherry was standing in the doorway in her riding suit; her helmet tucked under her left arm. "You two better get dressed and quick! We've got security droids closing in on our position!"

"Iliaster found us?" a stunned Rin asked. "But how? We've been here for weeks without being detected!"

"They were always going to find this place eventually," Sherry told them. "The more that robot empire expands, the more territory they can cover. It was only a matter of time before they reached these mountains and detected our cabin. Now suit up! We need to be gone yesterday!"

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed as he got out of bed. "I so don't want to deal with this."

"None of us do, but we've got no choice," Sherry responded. "Now let's move!"

Within minutes, Yugo and Rin had changed into their riding suits and found Bruno and Sherry in the garage. Bruno had already changed into his riding gear and was working on a pink and silver D-Wheel similar to the one that Rin once drove.

"Rin, I've been preparing this D-Wheel for you just for this moment," Bruno revealed as he closed up a hatch on the vehicle's side. "I only wish that it didn't have to come so soon."

"Do we know exactly how many droids we're dealing with?" Sherry asked.

"The scanners picked up at least ten," Bruno answered. "Nine of them are still at least an hour away from here, but there's one that should be here within a matter of minutes. My guess is that its D-Wheel must have a high-performance engine more powerful than the ones used by the standard security droids."

"I wonder if it's that kind of droid?" Yugo spoke.

"What kind are you talking about?" Rin asked.

"One of the things I remember from my time in Iliaster was that the collective was working on a new kind of droid to help capture and eliminate small bands of resistance groups in isolated areas like this one," Yugo explained. "They were still in the prototype stages though. They hadn't even tried building them yet when I was in the collective… because they had me."

"If what you're saying is correct, then Iliaster must've decided to go ahead with the production of this new model of droid after Rin removed you from the collective," Bruno deduced. "They needed to replace their most powerful weapon."

"Did you have to put it like that?" Rin snapped. "I'm sure Yugo doesn't want to hear about how he was Iliaster's main weapon."

"He's right though, Rin. That's what I was," Yugo told her.

"We can talk about all this later!" Sherry told them. "Right now we need to get the hell out of here!"

"And go where?" Yugo asked as he and the others mounted their respective vehicles.

"To the base of your original resistance group," Bruno answered. "In order to eliminate Iliaster, we need to attack Neo Domino. That base is the best stage to launch such an attack."

Once the garage door opened up, the four zoomed out onto the rough mountain trail leading away from the cabin. The frigid wind outside cut into their bodies like a knife and made both Rin and Yugo long for the warmth of the cabin. As they zoomed down the rocky dirt road, Bruno kept a sharp eye on the screen of his D-Wheel.

"So how are we supposed to get to the base all the way from here?" Rin asked. "Are we going to use that hyperspace tunnel of light thing that we used to get to this mountain from Neo Domino?"

"That is the plan," Bruno confirmed. "But the device that allows my D-Wheel to create a warp corridor needs a few minutes to charge up. Plus before we do anything, we need to lose the droids that are chasing after us. There's a chance they could follow us into the corridor, and if that were to happen, we'd lead them right to the resistance base."

"You think we can lose them?" Yugo asked.

"Bruno and I both know the trails running through these mountains like the back of our hands," Sherry answered. "There are a lot of twists and turns, as well as plenty of forested areas were we can take cover if we need to. Hopefully losing these droids won't be too much of a problem."

"Well it looks like we're going to have a pretty hard time losing that advanced model of droid that Yugo was talking about," Bruno informed them as he looked back at his screen. "It seems like it's detected us, and its right on our tail."

Yugo, Rin and Sherry all looked back, and a few seconds later they spotted the droid that was chasing them. It was riding atop a silver and very menacing-looking D-Wheel that had a red light on the front that went back and forth across a thick black screen like the electronic eyes of the droids themselves. The vehicle's rider was a bulky humanoid robot that had a black body with silver ball joints connecting the segments of its arms and legs together. Its head was chrome and the front of its bulky helmet had a large three-pointed crest on the front, and it had the same type of red eye that all the normal security droids had. A silver infinity symbol was painted on the front of its chest.

Yugo and the others attempted to speed up, but the droid was still gaining on them. It seemed like only a matter of time before the mechanical duelist caught up to them.

"I don't think we can lose that thing!" Rin realized.

"Then I guess we'll have to fight!" Sherry decided. "Just to be safe though, we should probably split up. The path we're on forks up ahead to the left and right. Both forks meet up again a few miles later. Bruno, you take Yugo and go down the fork on the left! I'll take Rin with me along the other path! That way there's less of a chance of all of us getting caught."

Bruno nodded. "Understood!"

"Wait just a damn minute!" Yugo protested. "How come Rin and I have to split up?"

"Yugo, both you and Rin are important keys to defeating Iliaster," Bruno explained. "If both of you were to be captured, the future of the human race is doomed. But if only one of you were to be captured, we'd still have a chance."

"No way! I don't like this!" Yugo declared.

"Yugo! I'll be fine!" Rin told him. "Bruno's right! Beating Iliaster has to come first!"

"We're coming up on the fork!" Sherry told them. "Let's go!"

"Ahh… dammit!" Yugo cursed as he reluctantly followed Bruno down the fork on the left.

As Bruno and Yugo zoomed down their path of escape, Rin and Sherry took the other path on the right. The droid that had been chasing them followed Sherry and Rin, seemingly ignoring the others.

Sherry looked back at the droid and smirked. "Well, either that bucket of bolts just isn't interested in the guys or we just picked the wrong escape route."

"This is Interceptor Droid NX-000," the droid spoke in its inflectionless mechanical voice. "By order of Iliaster, you are to pull over and surrender yourselves immediately. If you attempt to resist, this unit will use any means necessary to neutralize you."

"Rin, you just sit back and watch!" Sherry ordered. "I'll deal with this talking hunk of junk!"

"Your challenge is accepted," NX-000 responded.

"Action Field on!" Sherry called out. "Crossover Accel!"

As soon as the Action Field was activated, an explosion of white light went off in the air and cards rained down onto the mountainside. Both Sherry and Rin began to speed up, with NX-000 following right on their tail. The path they were on took another turn to the right, and just as the girls were about to take the corner, the droid pulled ahead and stole the lead from them.

"Initiating turn," NX-000 announced. "For its first move, this unit activates the Continuous Spell card, Granel's Blessing. Each time the opponent performs a Synchro Summon while this card is on the field, the user of Granel's Blessing gains life points equal to half the ATK of the summoned monster. Next, this unit summoned Meklord Army of Skiel and ends its turn."

On cue, a blue bird-like Army of Skiel robot materialized next to NX-000's D-Wheel.

"Looks like this thing is using the standard Meklord deck used by the regular models," Sherry assumed. "Looks like it may not be as big of a threat as we thought."

"Sherry, I don't think it's a good idea to underestimate that thing," a concerned Rin told her.

"Relax, kid. Even if it does have a special kind of deck, it's still no match for me. Now watch this!" Sherry spoke as she drew her next card. "Using the Scale 1 Revolution Knight – Fleur Sword Maiden and the Scale 9 Revolution Knight – Fleur Shield Maiden, I now set the Pendulum Scale!"

As soon as Sherry placed the two cards in question at the far ends of her duel disk blade, the word, "Pendulum" flashed across the blade in multicolored letters. Moments later, two tubes made of an ethereal blue light appeared to the left and right of the blonde's D-Wheel. Inside the tube on Sherry's right was a slender young-looking woman with fair skin, long red hair, and pink eyes. She was clad in shining silver armor with gold trim, and on her head was a glittering helmet with a gold visor and a large pink plum on the top that looked like a flower petal rather than a feather. The woman had on a long skirt made of a glittering pink fabric, and in her hands was a large ornate gold and silver sword with the end of the handle sculpted in the shape of a rose.

Within the tube on Sherry's left was a very tall young woman with a muscular physique, short pink hair, and green eyes. She had on armor very similar to that of Fleur Sword Maiden, complete with a shining helmet with a visor and a pink plum in the form of a flower petal on top. Attached to the pinkette's left arm was a large ornate golden shield that was about the size of her torso. Decorating the front of the shield was a large pink symbol resembling a rose. The young woman also had on a short skirt made of a shimmering pink fabric that ended half way down her thigh, along with glittering silver knee-high boots.

"With the Pendulum Scale set at one and nine, I can simultaneously summon monsters with levels from two to eight!" Sherry announced.

On cue, a giant number one written in orange alien writing appeared underneath Fleur Sword Maiden, while a giant number nine in the same alien writing appeared beneath Fleur Shield Maiden. Soon after, a giant crystal pendulum appeared in the sky and began to draw a circle of light.

"Swing! Pendulum of Revolution! Draw an arc of light across the heavens!" Sherry chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle being drawn by the pendulum transformed into a hole made of blue light. A ball of red light shot down out of the portal, followed closely by a ball of pink light.

"The warrior blossom that calls forth revolution!" Sherry called out. "Fleur Synchron!"

Appearing from the ball of red light was an orange bell-shaped flower with petals that were tipped pink. It had a face on the front consisting of two large eyes and a grinning mouth. On the underside of the flower was a pair of short green legs with large feet. On its sides were thin black arms ending in hands covered by large white hands.

"The horse that charges down the path to victory!" Sherry called out. "Revolution Knight – Fleur Steed!"

Emerging from the ball of pink light was a large horse clad entirely in shining rosy pink armor with gold trim. Attached to the armor on its back was a golden saddle. Its face was totally encased in armor, with its eyes covered by a large red visor. A row of golden spikes ran down the back of the horse's neck in place of a mane. Atop its head was a large plume in the form of a pink flower petal, and its tail was a cluster of similar petals.

A stunned Rin blinked in amazement. "Sherry… you can actually Pendulum Summon? How… how is this possible?"

"It's a little complicated to explain, and you're probably not quite ready to hear it yet," Sherry answered. "Now, I tune the level two Fleur Synchron into the level six Fleur Steed for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Fleur Synchron's body flashed orange before changing into two green rings of light. The rings encircled the galloping Fleur Steed and transformed the armored horse into six white stars.

"Elegant knight of white roses! Charge along the path of light that leads to revolution!" Sherry chanted. "Synchro Summon! Rise up! Chevalier de Blanc Fleur!"

The stars flashed into a horizontal ray of white light that expanded outward. In moments the light faded to reveal a lithe female knight clad in pink armor. She had green eyes, and decorating her helmet was a crest of five large white flower petals. Hanging from around her waist was a skirt of white flower petals that was open in the front, along with an ornate rapier with a gold handle and a white scabbard. On the knight's back was a long billowing red mantle with a golden crest of a rose on the back.

"Due to the effect of Granel's blessing, this unit gains 1350 life points due to the Synchro Summoning of your monster," NX-000 announced.

On cue, NX-000 glowed briefly with a blue aura as its life points rose to 5350.

"Go ahead! Increase your life points as much as you want! You're about to lose all of them anyway!" Sherry declared. "I attack Army of Skiel with Chevalier de Blanc Fleur, and at this moment I activate the Pendulum effect of Fleur Sword Maiden! Once per turn, when a Revolution Knight or Chevalier monster I control attacks an opponent's monster, Fleur Sword Maiden has my monster gain the ATK of its target during that battle!"

"It is futile to increase your monster's ATK points," NX-000 declared. "This unit's monster is in Defense Mode, which means it is shielded from damage."

"That's what you think! From my hand, I activate the Quick-Play Spell card, Noble Combat!" Sherry announced. "When one of my Revolution Knight or Chevalier monsters attacks an opponent's monster in Defense Mode, Noble Combat switches that monster to Attack Mode! Blanc Fleur! Attack Army of Skiel! Thorn of White Glory!"

Blanc Fleur charged across the field as she drew her ornate rapier from its sheath. The knight struck the Skiel robot with several thrust from her blade, causing it to explode in a blast of fire and smoke. NX-000's life points dropped to 2650. As the three riders continued down the rugged track, NX-000 spotted an Action Card sealed inside a multicolored bubble on the right side of the road.

"And now the effect of Chevalier de Blanc Fleur kicks in!" Sherry announced. "When Blanc Fleur destroys a monster in battle, she deals damage equal to that monster's original ATK!"

As Blanc Fleur charged towards NX-000, the droid tilted his D-Wheel and scooped up the Action Card he spotted earlier. "This unit activates the Action Card, Damage Inverse. This card negate the damage from an opponent's card effect and causes the user to gain life points by an amount equal to the damage that would've been lost."

Just as Blanc Fleur was about to strike, a spherical barrier of blue light appeared around NX-000 and blocked the strikes from the knight's rapier. NX-000's life points rose to 3850.

"So this droid is the smart kind that knows how to use Action Cards," Sherry observed. "Still, it doesn't matter how smart this thing is. I'll still beat it."

"When Army of Skiel is destroyed in battle, its user can summon another Meklord Army monster from the deck," NX-000 announced. "This unit uses the effect to summon a second Meklord Army of Skiel in Defense Mode."

On cue, another Army of Skiel robot appeared next to NX-000's D-Wheel.

"This unit now activates the secondary effect of Granel's Blessing," NX-000 announced. "Once during either player's turn, when a Meklord monster is special summoned to the field, the user of Granel's Blessing can draw one card."

"Fine. I end my turn," Sherry announced.

Rin drove her D-Wheel a little closer to Sherry's. "Are you totally sure you can beat this droid?"

"Relax kid. I've got this," Sherry assured her. "By the time I'm through, this bucket of bolts won't know what hit it."

* * *

Practically everything was quite as Yugo followed Bruno down the trial they had chosen as their escape route. There wasn't a single security droid in sight, and the only things that could be heard were the sounds of their D-Wheel engines and the cold wind rushing past them. Yet despite the seeming clam, Yugo couldn't help but worry about Rin and what was happening on that other road. The young turbo duelist long ago realized that the reason why that more advanced droid wasn't coming after him and Bruno was because it had decided to go after Sherry and Rin, and Yugo couldn't help but worry that they couldn't defeat it.

"Relax. I'm sure Rin and Sherry are doing fine," Bruno told him, finally breaking the long silence.

"I'm afraid I can't be as confident as you," Yugo responded. "Dammit! I knew it was a bad idea to split up."

"There was no way to be sure which pair that droid was going to go after," Bruno pointed out. "The odds were 50/50. In any case, I'm sure Sherry can handle that droid without any issue."

"Is she really that good?" Yugo asked.

Bruno nodded. "Sherry can be overconfident at times, but she's an incredibly skilled duelist. Plus her deck contains cards that can counter the Meklord strategy used by the droids. The odds of her success are incredibly high."

"I really hop you're right," Yugo told him. "I've got a really bad feeling though that this droid is more powerful than any of us realize."

* * *

NX-000 drew its next card. "This unit sends Meklord Emperor Wisel, Meklord Emperor Skiel, and Meklord Emperor Granel from its hand to the Graveyard to special summon Meklord Astro Mekanikle."

A massive pillar of red light erupted from the ground right behind NX-000's D-Wheel. In a few moments the light faded to reveal an extremely large Meklord robot. The machine was white and gold in color and had a humanoid build. Its legs ended in points like Wisel's and it had a pointed head. On its right forearm was a sort of shield and its left arm ended in a large cannon. The robot had a pair of diamond-shaped shoulders that both had windows that revealed blue-green energy cores inside. A window showing a third energy core was on the front of its waist. On the robot's chest were three connecting windows that showed a much larger red energy core inside the torso.

"A Meklord monster with 4000 ATK?" a stunned Rin exclaimed.

"Well, that's a new one," Sherry remarked.

"Because a Meklord monster was special summoned to the field, Unit NX-000 uses the effect of Granel's blessing to draw one card," the droid announced. "Furthermore, because another Meklord monster exists on the field, Army of Skiel gains 200 ATK."

"So let me guess, you're going to use that big giant Meklord of yours to absorb Blanc Fleur and kill me with a single direct attack," Sherry assumed.

"Your deduction is correct," NX-000 confirmed. "This unit activates the effect of Mekanikle to equip it with Chevalier de Blanc Fleur."

"Bad idea! I activate Blanc Fleur's other effect!" Sherry announced. "Once per turn, when an opponent's monster activates an effect that targets another monster on the field, Blanc Fleur can negate that effect and destroy the monster that cast it!"

Mekanikle opened its massive chest and launched several cables made of red energy down at Sherry's knight. Just as Blanc Fleur was about to be snared though, the knight seemed to disappear into thin air. A split second later, she reappeared right in front of Mekanikle and stabled the robot's open chest several times with lightning-quick thrusts of her rapier. Mekanikle's body sparked with electricity before exploding in a massive fireball that scattered debris across the forest.

"My Blanc Fleur has an effect that's pure poison to Meklord monsters," Sherry declared. "You can summon as many powerful Meklord Emperors or Meklord Astros as you want, but no matter how powerful they are, they can't even come close to touching my knight. So now what, you bucket of bolts?"

"Recalculating… this unit switches Army of Skiel to Defense Mode and ends its turn," NX-000 announced.

Sherry drew her next card. "With the scale still set at one and nine, I perform another Pendulum Summon!"

On cue, the giant crystal pendulum from before reappeared in the sky and began to draw a circle of glittering blue light.

"Swing! Pendulum of Revolution! Draw an arc of light across the heavens!" Sherry chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle of light in the sky became a portal, and from it flew down a ball made of red energy.

"Revive! Horse that charges down the path to victory!" Sherry called out. "Revolution Knight – Fleur Steed!"

The ball of light struck the field, and from it emerged Sherry's armored horse.

"I activate Fleur Steed's effect!" Sherry announced. "When Fleur Steed has been summoned from the Extra Deck, I can use his effect to revive a Tuner monster from my Graveyard! Rise again! Fleur Synchron!"

A ball of blue light formed above the golden saddle on Fleur Steed's back. In moments the ball faded away to reveal Fleur Synchron.

"I now tune the level two Fleur Synchron into the level six Fleur Steed for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Sherry announced.

As Fleur Steed galloped down the trail with Fleur Synchron in its back, the flower Tuner flashed orange and changed into two green rings of light that flew on up ahead. Fleur Steed charged into the rings and was instantly transformed into six white stars.

"Mysterious knight of black roses! Charge through the path of shadows that leads to justice!" Sherry chanted. "Synchro Summon! Rise up! Chevalier de Noir Fleur!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal another knight that seemed to be Blanc Fleur's twin. The new knight's eyes were red, and her armor was purple instead of pink. A crest of five large black flower petals adorned the front of her helmet, and hanging from around her waist was a skirt of black flower petals that was open in the front, along with an ornate rapier with a silver handle and a black scabbard. On the knight's back was a long billowing blue mantle with a silver crest of a rose on the back.

"Blanc Fleur and Noir Fleur both share a common effect!" Sherry announced. "When another Chevalier monster is on the field, they gain an extra 300 ATK! This means that right now, both Blanc Fleur and Noir Fleur have an ATK of 3000!"

Both of Sherry's knights raised their rapiers in the air and crossed their blades. As they did so, both of them began to glow with a faint emerald aura.

"Because you just Synchro Summoned a monster, Unit NX-000 gains half that monster's original ATK in life points due to the effect of Granel's blessing," the droid announced.

NX-000 glowed briefly with a blue aura as its life points climbed to 5200.

"I use Noir Fleur to attack Army of Skiel!" Sherry announced.

As Noir Fleur charged across the field, NX-000 scooped up an Action Card lying at the side of the road. "This unit activates the Action Card, Evasion to cancel your monster's attack."

"Nice try, but I activate Noir Fleur's effect!" Sherry announced. "Once during either player's turn, Noir Fleur can negate the activation of an opponent's Spell or Trap card and destroy it!"

Noir Fleur vanished and reappeared a split second later in front of the large representation of NX-000's Action Card. The dark knight of flowers struck the card several times with her rapier, causing it to shatter apart into particles of yellow light.

"And now Noir Fleur finishes what she started!" Sherry announced. "Thorn of Black Justice!"

Noir Fleur disappeared again, only to show up again right next to the Skiel Army robot a moment later. The dark knight attacked the flying droid with several strikes from her rapier, causing it to explode.

"And now for Noir Fleur's other effect!" Sherry announced. "When Noir Fleur destroys a monster in battle, she deals damage equal to the original DEF points of the destroyed monster!"

The dark knight moved in and used her blade to strike NX-000's chest several times. When the attack ended, the droid's life points dropped to 4000.

"Because Army of Skiel was destroyed in battle, this unit uses its effect to special summon a third Army of Skiel monster from the deck in Defense Mode," NX-000 announced. On cue, another Skiel Army monster appeared on the field. "This unit now uses the secondary effect of Granel's Blessing to draw one card."

"I attack Army of Skiel with Blanc Fleur!" Sherry announced. "Thorn of White Glory!"

Blanc Fleur dashed across the battlefield and struck the third Skiel Army robot several times with her blade. The Skiel droid instantaneously exploded after being hit.

"And now Blanc Fleur's effect deals you Army of Skiel's 1200 ATK as damage!" Sherry announced.

On cue, Blanc Fleur moved in and struck NX-000 several times in the chest with her rapier. After being hit, NX-000's life points dropped to 3000.

"Because Army of Skiel was destroyed in battle, this unit uses its effect to summon Meklord Army of Wisel from the deck in Defense Mode," NX-000 announced.

A white humanoid Wisel Army robot materialized next to NX-000's D-Wheel.

"I'll end my turn there," Sherry announced. "It's only fair to tell you that there's nothing you can do to turn this around. Now that I have my invincible combo of Blanc Fleur and Noir Fleur on the field, you're pretty much helpless. To borrow a phrase that you and your fellow droids like to use, resistance is futile."

"…It is a mistake to underestimate us," NX-000 spoke before drawing its next card. "Unit NX-000 banishes Meklord Astro Mekanikle from the Graveyard to special summon Meklord Astro Omega Nova."

The ground shook, and suddenly erupting from the earth a few feet ahead at the side of the track was a massive pillar of fire. After a few seconds, the flames subsided to reveal a gigantic humanoid robot that was very similar in appearance to Mekanikle. Its body was red with white trim, and it had five windows on its chest instead of three that were arranged like an inverted star. The windows showed what appeared to be a small orange-red star burning inside the robot's chest. On the sides of the robot's conical head like a pair of ears were two gold triangular fins.

The color drained from Rin's face as she looked up at the robot. "This looks really bad."

"Relax. That thing may be huge and have 4500 ATK, but there's no way it can touch me," Sherry confidently declared.

"This unit activates the effect of Omega Nova to equip it with a Synchro Monster," NX-000 announced. "Unit NX-000 selects Chevalier de Blanc Fleur as the effect's target."

"And I activate Blanc Fleur's effect to negate that effect and destroy that giant robot of yours!" Sherry announced. But to her surprise, nothing happened as Omega Nova's chest began to open up. The blonde looked and saw that both her knights appeared to be frozen as if asleep. "What… what the hell is going on?"

"While Omega Nova is on the field, Synchro Monsters of level eight or below cannot attack or activate their effects," NX-000 explained.

Several cables made of a red flaming energy were launched from Omega Nova's chest and snared Blanc Fleur. The knight of white flowers was pulled off the ground and was soon transformed into red energy that was sucked into the giant robot's chest.

"Because it is equipped with Chevalier de Blanc Fleur, Omega Nova's ATK rises from 4500 to 7200," NX-000 announced. "This unit now activates another one of Omega Nova's effect. Once per duel, with Omega Nova has equipped itself with a Synchro Monster, its effect lets the user tribute another Meklord monster in the users control to equip Omega Nova with a second Synchro Monster. NX-000 tributes Army of Wisel to equip Omega Nova with Chevalier de Noir Fleur."

The Wisel Army monster suddenly exploded, and a green ball of energy flew up from its flaming remains and entered the screen that acted as Omega Nova's face. Omega Nova opened its chest again and snared Noir Fleur with its red energy cables. Noir Fleur was quickly turned into red energy that was pulled into Omega Nova.

"With Chevalier de Noir Fleur now equipped to it, Omaga Nova's ATK is now at 9900," NX-000 announced. "Omega Nova attacks directly. Star Destroyer Cannon."

The crimson robot aimed the giant cannon on its left arm down at Sherry. In seconds, a massive ball of orange light formed at the end of the cannon's barrel. As the ball of light got larger, Sherry found an Action Card at the side of the road and scooped it up.

"I activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Sherry announced. "This card cancels Omega Nova's attack!"

A second after Sherry activated the card Omega Nova fired a massive beam of orange energy down at her. Sherry immediately sped up her D-Wheel with Rin following close on her tail. The two of them just barely managed to get out of the beam's path as it struck a patch of the ground behind them.

"That was way too close!" Rin declared.

"Okay. Yeah, that could've ended us," Sherry admitted. "But this duel isn't over yet!"

"Negative. This duel shall end on this turn," NX-000 declared. "This unit enters its second Main Phase and activates Omega Nova's final effect. By sending Omega Nova to the Graveyard, it can deal damage equal to the total ATK points of the monsters equipped to it."

Both Sherry and Rin went totally pale as the star inside Omega Nova's chest got brighter and began to swell. A second later, the crimson robot exploded into a massive ball of light that send shockwaves all throughout the mountains. The blast was so strong that Sherry and Rin were knocked off their D-Wheels. Sherry's life points dropped from 4000 to zero as she was flung back into a snowdrift. When the light from the explosion finally faded, NX-000 brought its D-Wheel to a stop.

The droid dismounted and looked around. There was no sight of Sherry, but it immediately spotted Rin lying on the ground unconscious a few feet from where her D-Wheel was lying on its side. NX-000 walked over and lifted Rin off the ground. With the green-haired girl flung over its shoulder, NX-000 mounted its D-Wheel and drove off. It seemed that the droid had achieved its objective.

* * *

Yugo and Bruno arrived at the site of where they thought they saw an explosion in the distance. They found Rin and Sherry's D-Wheels on the ground, but no sign of the riders. Yugo immediately dismounted and began to look for where the two could've gone, calling out Rin's name at the top of his lungs. After a few moments, Sherry emerged from the snowdrift she had been flung into and staggered towards them.

Bruno swiftly dismounted his D-Wheel and met the blonde halfway. "You okay? What happened?"

"I underestimated that super droid. That's what happened," Sherry answered. "It's deck had a monster that I didn't see coming."

"Where's Rin?" Yugo asked.

Sherry sighed and shook her head. "That damn robot must've grabbed her after I was knocked out. I'm sorry."

"Yugo. Don't worry. We can get Rin back," Bruno assured him. "She's probably been taken straight to the pyramid at the center of Neo Domino. That's Rex Goodwin's stronghold."

"Yeah, but… once they take here there, they're gonna… they're gonna…" Yugo spoke, but he couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence. The mere thought of Rin being assimilated by the collective was just too horrible to speak of.

"Relax. Rin won't be assimilated. Goodwin will just keep her around as sort of a houseguest," Sherry told him.

"And why would he do that?" Yugo asked.

"Because while Rex Goodwin may be the one controlling Iliaster, the true mastermind behind the organization is Leo Akaba," Bruno answered.

"Rin's dad? What's he got to do with it?" Yugo asked.

"It'd take too long to explain right now," Sherry told him. "Right now we need to get to the resistance base where your friends are so we can mount a mission to rescue Rin and put an end to all this once and for all."

"Fine with me," Yugo replied. "I've gone way too much to lose Rin now! I'll get her back even if I have to walk over Goodwin's dead body to get her!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope none of you reading were disappointed that Yugo or Rin didn't duel in this latest chapter. But hey, after going to the trouble of having Sherry show up in this story, I decided to give her at least one duel. Once again, I had to give Sherry a totally new deck like I did in my _5D's Alternative_ trilogy. This time I decided to base it more on the turbo duel deck that she used against Yusei in the anime. My one regret about the duel is that I wasn't able to show off the full effects of most of Sherry's Pendulum Monsters.

Of course I've been developing a sequel to this story, and if it does happen, Sherry's will get another chance to show off the power of those Pendulum Monsters. Anyway, the cards I was most proud of in this duel were the two reinvented versions of Sherry's original Chevalier de Fleur monster. Of course as awesome as those monsters were, it kind of complicated things for me because Sherry unfortunately had to lose. Eventually I came up with the idea of Meklord Astro Omega Nova, which I ended up with a Synchro Monster only effect similar to that of Thousand Eyes Restrict. I probably made Omega Nova a little too overpowered, but it ended the duel effectively enough.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	31. The Return

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 31: The Return

Yugo, Sherry and Bruno drove through the tunnel of light opened by Bruno's D-Wheel for what seemed like only ten or fifteen minutes before finally emerging from it into a vast wasteland that was all too familiar to Yugo. Moments later the trio entered the remains of an abandoned village that was once known as Crash Town. They kept on going until they reached the massive brown mountain that was just beyond the ghost town. It was not long before Yugo and the others found the cave mouth that led to the tunnels beneath that were once the Crash Town mine. The trio drove down through the main entrance until they came face to face with a massive metal door that blocked their path.

"So now what?" Yugo asked. "Do we knock or something?"

"Not necessary," Bruno told him. "All I need to do is hack the access codes and we can just drive right in."

"Well… you can try," Yugo responded. "But Saiga and Izzy were probably the ones who wrote the access codes. It's probably impossible to crack…"

"Got it!" Bruno spoke before Yugo could finish.

The massive metal doors slowly slid open, allowing Yugo and his two escorts to drive right on through. After a few short minutes the three of them reached the base's main hanger. Just as Yugo and the others parked their vehicles, Sid and two other guards showed up.

"Stop right there! You're not getting a step further you Iliaster…" Sid began, but stopped when he saw Yugo removing his helmet. "Oh! Yugo? Is that really you?"

"Yeah. I'm back," Yugo answered.

"Wow! And you're not part of Iliaster anymore," Sid realized. "At least… I don't think you are. Unless this is all some sort of elaborate trick to make us drop our guard. Is it?"

"Are freaking you kidding me?" an annoyed Sherry asked. "Do we really look like part of Iliaster?"

"Yugo, who are these guys?" Sid asked.

"It's okay. They're friends," Yugo assured him.

"If you don't mind, officer. It's vital that we all speak to the leader of this resistance group," Bruno requested.

"Uh… yeah. Sure thing," Sid replied as he rubbed the back of his head. "Crow and the others are in the middle of a meeting, but I'm sure they'll drop everything when they hear that Yugo's back."

With that, Sid escorted the three to the command center while one of the other guards let Crow and the others know that they were coming. During the walk down the corridors, Yugo couldn't help but feel very uneasy about his upcoming reunion with his old friends, especially with Crow. After all, Yugo had almost killed Crow during their last encounter. After a few more moments, the group finally reached the command center. All eyes were on Yugo as he entered the room.

A nervous smile formed on Yugo's face as he gave the group a wave. "Uh… hi everyone. Long time, huh?"

"Yugo," an all-too-familiar voice spoke.

Yugo looked and saw that it was Crow. Right away he noticed that cast that was on the redhead's arm, a souvenir from the time that Yugo fought him as Aten. A serious expression was on Crow's face as he approached him. Yugo felt sure that Crow was going to chew him out or hit him, and he had every right to do so.

Crow stood face to face with Yugo for several tense moments before finally grinning and giving him a hard pat on the shoulder. "It's good to have you back, old buddy! You being around her will sure brighten this place up. Plus we can use all the help we can get right now."

Yugo was totally stunned. "You're… you're not mad at me?"

"Why the heck would I be mad?" Crow asked.

"But… I almost killed you before!" Yugo loudly pointed out. "I mean I didn't want to, but I'm the reason why you got hurt!"

"Yugo… that wasn't your fault," Crow told him.

"It was my fault!" Yugo declared, practically shouting. "You and so many other people suffered because of what I did as Aten! And nothing can ever undo that!"

Suddenly Jack stormed over and punched Yugo in the face. The young turbo duelist was knocked onto his back upon being struck. After a moment, Yugo sat up and held his injured cheek.

"Quit feeling sorry for yourself, Yugo!" Jack told him. "That sort of behavior is unworthy of someone who I consider to be my rival! If you feel that badly about what Iliaster made you do as Aten, then pick yourself up and make them pay for it!"

Yugo got back to his feet and took a deep breath. "Yeah… you're right Jack. Thanks for that. Besides, feeling sorry for myself won't do anything to get Rin back."

"Rin's gone? What happened?" a stunned Aki asked.

"She got captured by Iliaster on our way here," Sherry answered.

"And you are…?" Matsuri asked.

"I'm Sherry, and the guy in the orange shades is Bruno," the blonde answered. "We work for someone who's really interested in eliminating Iliaster once and for all."

"And we're just supposed to trust you?" a skeptical Ushio asked.

"They're fine, guys," Yugo assured them. "Rin and I lived with them for weeks after she rescued me."

"You can't blame Ushio for being cautious," Crow told him. "A little while after Rin went off to rescue you, the base was attacked while Jack and most of the others went off on another mission. A couple of guys from a unit called Freak Show managed to get in here and do a lot of damage."

"And wasn't just our base they hit," Saiga added. "Every other resistance base around the world was attacked at the same time."

"Do you know what the status of those other bases is?" Sherry asked.

"We haven't been able to reach any of them," Carly answered. "As far as we know, we're all that's left of the resistance."

"Then it's even more vital that we launch an attack on Neo Domino," Bruno declared. "This war won't end until Rex Goodwin is defeated. Once he's eliminated, the Iliaster collective will fall to pieces."

"We were just talking about launching an attack on Neo Domino when you guys got here," Crow informed him. "It's not gonna be easy."

"Maybe not, but none of us have a choice anymore," Sherry told them. "Now that your resistance movement has been reduced to this one base, the only option now is to strike at Iliaster's heart."

"All of us are pretty much in agreement on that," Aki responded. "Plus we have even more of a reason to attack Neo Domino now that Rin's probably been assimilated into the collective by now."

"Actually you won't have to worry about that," Sherry revealed. "Goodwin won't have Rin assimilated. Leo Akaba wouldn't allow it."

"What the heck does Rin's dad have to do with all this?" Crow asked.

"Leo Akaba is essentially the true founder of Iliaster," Bruno answered. "There's still much on this matter that Sherry and I aren't at liberty to tell you. In fact there's a lot of it that you probably wouldn't believe. We can tell you though that Leo Akaba and Rex Goodwin worked together years ago on a certain project. During that project, they came to the conclusion that the human race had an inherently self-destructive nature, and that the only way it could survive was if it was ruled by a higher power."

"I don't know about anyone else, but I don't give a damn about who founded Iliaster," Jack spoke. "What I want to know is how the hell we're going to take it apart."

"There's only one way. Yugo must defeat Rex Goodwin," Bruno answered. "Unfortunately, he can't do it as he is right now. In order to defeat Goodwin, he must learn a new level of summoning."

"What do you mean?" Yugo asked.

Bruno looked Yugo straight in the eye. "Yugo… there's no denying that your Clear Wing Synchro Dragon is the apex of all Synchro Monsters. In fact it's most recent evolution, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, may currently be the most powerful Synchro Monster in existence. But even that dragon will not be enough against someone like Goodwin. He'll likely have Meklord monsters that can counter Crystal Wing's power."

"There's no maybe about it," Sherry interjected. "The droid that defeated me and took Rin had a Meklord monster that could suppress the effects of level eight or lower Synchro Monsters and prevent them from attacking. Even a card like Crystal Wing doesn't stand a chance against something like that."

"In order to defeat Goodwin, you must evolve your dragon even further," Bruno went on. "The only way for you to do that is for you to learn the power of Accel Synchro."

"Accel Synchro?" Yugo repeated. "I've never heard of a summoning method like that before."

"I will teach it to you," Bruno told him. "In the meantime, Sherry will work with the others to put together a plan to attack Goodwin's stronghold, the pyramid at the center of the city."

"How long will it take you to teach Yugo this new summoning method?" Crow asked.

"It's hard to say," Bruno answered. "It all depends on Yugo."

"Then I guess you guys better get started," Crow decided. "The sooner we launch this attack, the better."

* * *

Rin awoke inside a large and well-furnished bedroom with white walls and marble tiles. As she sat up on the bed and took in her surroundings, the black metal door to the room on the far wall slid open. Walking in with his hands folded behind his back was a man with long grey hair that Rin quickly deduced was the leader of Iliaster, Rex Goodwin. The door immediately slid shut behind Rex the moment he walked through the doorway.

"I'm glad we finally had this chance to meet, Rin," Rex spoke. "I apologize for the rough way you were brought here, but it would've saved both of us a lot of trouble if you had come here willingly."

"So I guess I'm back in Neo Domino, huh?" Rin deduced.

Rex nodded. "You are in a private room here in my citadel."

"So when exactly are you going to assimilate me?" Rin asked.

"That will not be necessary," Rex told her. "For one thing, Leo would not approve. Besides, even though I am the one controlling Iliaster and most of the world with it, you are this world's rightful heir and ruler."

"What're you talking about?" Rin asked. "How do you even know my father anyway?"

Rex walked over to look in the full-length mirror hanging on the wall to Rin's right. "The answer to both those questions are a long story… but it's far past time you heard it. Your father and I are old friends. Years ago we worked together on a research team sent to investigate an ancient lost city discovered in South America. The city was known as Seibal, a metropolis that certain ancient texts referred to as the city of the gods.

"The team of archeologists that first discovered Seibal found that it contained pieces of technology far beyond anything that the human race could've developed thousands of years ago. To unravel the mysteries of this ancient city, a team lead by the world's finest technological and scientific minds was sent to investigate it. Your father and I were part of that team, as was my brother, Rudger and Dr. Fudo, the man responsible for creating the Momentum Reactor technology that powers almost everything from D-Wheels to this very city."

"Wait, Dr. Fudo?" Rin repeated. "Are you talking about…?"

"That's right. I speak of the father of your old friend, Yusei Fudo," Rex revealed as he turned back to face her. "Because of the advanced energy reactors built into Seibal's structure, Dr. Fudo was sent in order to figure out how they work and perhaps get them running again. As I was originally saying, your father and I became very good friends during this research mission. Over the course of our many conversations, we both came to the conclusion that the human race required supervision from a greater power in order to survive. Otherwise humanity's naturally competitive nature would lead it down the path to self-destruction.

"Of course in the beginning, neither Leo nor myself knew how to bring forth such a power, but as our research of Seibal continued, we discovered that both the city and Leo himself were the very power that we sought. From the time we had first arrived at Seibal, Leo felt an indescribable connection to the place. He said many times that he felt as though he had come home. During the course of the city's excavation, we learned more about the original inhabitants of Seibal and even found some of their remains. They were little more than mummies, but some of those dried up husks had enough usable DNA left in them to do a genetic scan.

"I don't remember how I got the idea, but I decided to compare the DNA of the mummies to your father's. And what I discovered shocked us both. Rin, the blood of a god flows through your father's veins, and through your own as well!"

A chill went down Rin's spine from what Rex just told her. She once again remembered Divine's story about the Annunaki; the aliens who came to the Earth in order to rule it as gods, and about Divine's claims that Rin was descended from Annunaki royalty.

"The reason Leo felt as if he had come home was because Seibal was the city of his ancestors… of your ancestors," Rex continued. "That lost city was your family's birthright, and it had the kind of power that we needed in order to change this world and preserve the human race. You see Seibal was more than just a city. It was an advanced aerial fortress of unimaginable power. Once Dr. Fudo figured out how to turn the fortress's reactors back on, Leo and I planned to use it to bring this planet under our control."

"Then why haven't I heard about this fortress your talking about before?" Rin asked.

"Unfortunately, our plan was thrown off course," Rex revealed. "My brother and Dr. Fudo found our what Leo and I were trying to accomplish and turned against us. I was on the ground when we finally launched Seibal back into the air. I don't know exactly what happened, but Dr. Fudo did something to Seibal's reactors that caused it to shift into another dimension. My brother managed to escape the fortress before it was cast into another realm, but Dr. Fudo died during this act of sabotage. Meanwhile, your father was left trapped on Seibal.

"Fortunately, some of the technology found in Seibal had been salvaged and transported off the fortress before it was lost. I was able to use those resources to continue the work that your father and I started. Iliaster is the result of that work! Thanks to my efforts the world is not almost totally unified!"

"All this is the perfect world that you and my dad tried to create?" Rin snapped as she practically leapt off the bed and stormed over to Rex. "None of those people out there are alive! You turned them all into dolls without any free will!"

"I will admit that the methods I've use might be a tad extreme, but it was the only way I had to unify this world until your father's return," Rex told her.

"What do you mean?" Rin asked.

"The citadel that we're standing in right now is what allows me to control the Iliaster collective, but it was also built to send Seibal here," Rex revealed. "It has been continuously sending energy pulses into the dimensional rift where Seibal was stranded, providing the fortress with the power it needs to return to our world. I won't be much longer before Seibal finally returns. Think of it, Rin. Very soon, you and your father will finally be reunited."

"Even if… even if everything you've said is true, I wan no part of this world that you and my father are trying to create!" Rin declared. "My friends and I will find a way to stop you!"

At this, Rex smirked. "Yes. I'm sure you're friends will do everything in their power to stand in my way, as they have done before. Your friend, Yusei was one of the first, and he paid for it."

"What… what do you mean?" an unsettled Rin asked. "Are you the reason why Yusei never showed up for the final match of the Friendship Cup?"

"Not long before that final match, my brother reached out to your friend and sent him to try and stop me," Rex revealed. "Yusei confronted me that night with the intention of stopping me and avenging his traitorous father. I dealt with him accordingly."

"You didn't… kill him, did you?" Rin asked.

"I did far worse than kill him," Rex answered with a triumphant grin. "At the very start of our duel, I cast Yusei into the same dimensional void that Seibal had been cast into. But unlike Seibal, your friend will never return! It's a fitting punishment for his father's crimes."

Rin staggered back until the back of her legs met the side of the bed, causing her to sit back onto it. "It… it can't be. Yusei can't be gone!"

"Your friend would not have met such a fate if he didn't try to oppose me," Rex told her. "I may be forced to do the same thing to that little band of resistance fighters you're so fond of unless they surrender."

"…So what happens to me now?" Rin asked.

"Nothing at all," Rex answered as he headed for the door. "Of course with your current attitude being what it is, I have no choice but to keep you here in this room for the time being. I do have great faith though that you'll come around to our cause eventually."

With that, Rex left the room. The electronic door slid shut behind him before Rin could make a move for it, not that she even tried. She was too shaken up by Rex's story about her father and the news of Yusei's supposed demise.

Rin slid further back into the bed and hugged her knees to her chest. "I don't know how… but I'm going to get out of here. And I'm going to make that monster pay for everything that he's done."

* * *

Please review and let me know what you think.


	32. Speed Summon

**Author's Note:** I forgot to mention last time that the movie Yugo and Rin were watching at the beginning of the previous chapter is a real movie. _The Wraith_ is actually sort of a guilty pleasure movie of mine. I have it in my home DVD collection. It's a pretty bad movie, but as Bruno said, the car featured in it is pretty cool.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 32: Speed Summon

Plans for the final attack on Neo Domino to take down Iliaster once and for all began almost immediately after Yugo's return. Sherry briefed Crow and the other leaders on everything that she and Bruno knew about Rex Goodwin's stronghold at the heart of the city. Meanwhile, Bruno got set to begin training Yugo in the art of Accel Synchro. The morning after his return to the base, Yugo met with Bruno in the base's largest practice track. Jack was watching the two from the arena's skybox, along with Rua, Ruka and Hitomi.

"It sure is going to be a blast to see Yugo duel again," Rua declared.

"Jack, how much do you know about this guy that Yugo's going to duel?" Ruka asked.

"Only that he's going to try and teach Yugo some kind of new summoning technique," Jack answered, not once taking his eyes off Yugo. "I want to see if this summoning method is as powerful as Bruno says it is."

"Did we miss the show yet?" a familiar voice asked. Jack and the others looked to see Crow standing in the doorway with Aki and Sherry.

"They've only just gotten onto the track," Hitomi answered. "Shouldn't you guys be planning the attack on Neo Domino?"

"We're taking a little break," Sherry answered as she and the others approached the window. "Actually, we've just about figured out almost all of the details for the attack. Most of what's left is to get ready for the actual operation."

"Besides, I'm pretty curious about this summoning technique that Bruno's going to teach Yugo," Crow added.

Back down on the track, Yugo had just pulled up next to Bruno at the starting line. "So how is this going to work?"

"The best place to start is for me to demonstrate an Accel Synchro Summon myself so you can see how it works," Bruno answered. "But there are a couple of things I want you to do in this duel as well. First, before the duel actually starts, I want you to get your D-Wheel to go as fast as possible. Speed is an important element to this technique, and I want to see if I need to make any adjustments to your engine."

"Makes sense," Yugo replied. "What's the other thing?"

"On your first turn, I want you to Synchro Summon as many monsters as possible," Bruno answered. "This is so I can merely confirm the summoning speed of your deck. Summoning multiple Synchro Monsters in a single turn is another key element to this technique."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Yugo replied. "Now, can we get on with this? The quicker I get this down, the quicker we can go and save Rin."

"Very well," Bruno replied with a nod. "Action Field on! Crossover Accel!"

An explosion of white light went off in the air above the large indoor racetrack and several cards rained down onto the field. As soon as the green light from the track's countdown clock went off, Yugo and Bruno took off. Bruno swiftly took the first corner of the track, allowing him to make the first move. Both of them continued speeding down the course though without making any moves. Instead they focused on getting their D-Wheels to maximum velocity.

"What the heck are they doing down there?" Rua asked. "Bruno hasn't played any cards. All they're doing is racing."

"They're both trying to get their D-Wheels to go at top speed," Sherry explained. "Before Bruno can show Yugo the power of Accel Synchro, they need to go as fast as possible."

"How come?" Ruka asked. "What does their speed have to do with it?"

"You'll find out soon," Sherry answered.

After completing almost a full lap, Yugo's D-Wheel was going at its maximum speed. He found that he was able to just barely match Bruno's speed, but he sense that Bruno might be able to go even faster.

"It seems your D-Wheel will need a few adjustments," Bruno observed. "Fortunately it's a simple upgrade to make. Now, for my first move, I summon Tech Genus Catapult Dragon in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Bruno's D-Wheel was a fairly large dark-grey four-legged dragon with pointed ears and a body built like that of an alligator. Red vein-like lines covered much of the dragon's body. Its ankles were covered in pieces of thick blue armor, and on its back was a pair of flat grey wings. The beast had a long snout with a curved white horn at the end and a piece of blue armor on the top that resembled a launching pad.

"I activate Catapult Dragon's effect!" Bruno announced. "Once per turn, Catapult Dragon lets me special summon a level three or lower Tech Genus Tuner monster from my hand! I special Summon Tech Genus Jet Falcon!"

A portal of blue light appeared on Catapult Dragon's back, and out of it flew a black and grey falcon with large muscular legs. Cybernetic blue armor covered its waist and torso, and attached the armor on its back was a sleek pair of jet boosters that connected together with a large horseshoe-shaped blade. Red feathers resembling a mask covered the bird's face.

"I tune the level three Jet Falcon into the level two Catapult Dragon to Synchro Summon a level five monster in Defense Mode!" Bruno announced.

Jet Falcon flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Catapult Dragon and transformed it into two white stars.

"Limiter Removal, Level Five! Regulator Open! Thruster Warm-up, OK! Up-link All Clear! Go!" Bruno chanted. "Synchron Summon! Come on! Tech Genus Hyper Librarian!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal column of light that expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal a man with long silver hair and wearing blue sunglasses similar to Bruno's goggles. Atop his head was a white and black hat with silver tassels hanging from the left and right sides and a gold crest on the front. The man hand on tight-fitting black and white robes with gold trim and burgundy cuffs on the arms, along with a pair of white gloves. Hanging from his back was a long white cape with a burgundy underside. In his left hand, the man held a futuristic white tablet with two transparent blue flaps on the sides near its top, and an ornate gold and burgundy crest on the back.

"Because Jet Falcon was used as material for a Synchro Summon, you take 500 points of damage!" Bruno announced.

A ghostly version of Jet Falcon suddenly appeared in the air and flew down, ramming into the front of Yugo's D-Wheel. Yugo's D-Wheel wobbled slightly as his life points took a slight drop to 3500.

"I set three cards on the field and end my turn!" Bruno announced.

"What's this Bruno playing at?" Jack asked up in the skybox. "He summoned a monster with 2400 ATK in Defense Mode."

"Plus he has three face-down cards on the field," Crow added. "This has 'trap' written all over it."

Yugo drew his first card. "First I set one card on the field! Next, because I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

On cue, Yugo's red train of mechanical tops materialized next to his D-Wheel.

"I use Terrortop's effect to add Speedroid Taketomborg to my hand!" Yugo announced. "Because I have a Wind monster on the field, I special summon Taketomborg from my hand!"

Yugo's bug-eyed robot appeared in its helicopter mode next to Terrortop and instantly transformed into its robot mode.

"I activate Taketomborg's other effect!" Yugo announced. "By sacrificing Taketomborg, I can summon a Speedroid Tuner from the deck! I special summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice!"

Taketomborg shattered into particles of gold light, and a split second later Yugo's golden red-eyed die appeared in the robot's place.

"Because Red-Eyed Dice was summoned to the field, I use its effect to change Terrortop's level from three to five!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the now level five Terrortop for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Terrortop and transformed it into five white stars.

"Magical sword in the form of a cross! Use your power to rend all enemies!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level six! Hi-Speedroid Kendama!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal Yugo's blue starship-like robot.

"Because a Synchro Summon was just performed, Hyper Librarian's effect activates and allows me to draw one card!" Bruno announced.

"I summon Speedroid Double Yoyo in Attack Mode!" Yugo announced.

On cue, Yugo's green and grey two-wheeled robot materialized next to Kendama.

"I use Double Yoyo's effect to summon Red-Eyed Dice back to the field!" Yugo announced. The gold die reappeared next to Double Yoyo. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level four Double Yoyo for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Once again, Red-Eyed Dice transformed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Double Yoyo and changed the machine into four white stars.

"Overflowing with the throb of life, soul of the sword's dance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level five! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"

The stars flashed and became a beam of white light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal Yugo's crimson sword-like robot.

"Because another Synchro Summon was performed, Hyper Librarian lets me draw another card!" Bruno announced.

"Looks like Yugo's just gonna charge right in without worrying about those face-down cards," Crow observed. "The kid's just as reckless as ever."

"I'm not so sure about that," Aki spoke. "I could be wrong, but I think Yugo summoned both those monsters to show Bruno what his deck is capable of."

"That's exactly what's going on," Sherry told them. "Bruno wants Yugo to show what his deck can do in order to make sure he can actually pull off this summoning technique."

"If I had a slightly better hand, I could probably pull off a third Synchro Summon," Yugo revealed. "As it is though, this is the best I can do for right now."

"That display was sufficient," Bruno told him. "You've confirmed the summoning speed of your deck for me. I can see that with the way your deck is set up, you're more than capable of performing a basic Accel Synchro Summon."

"So when the heck are you going to show me this method?" Yugo asked.

"All in good time," Bruno answered. "But for now, come at me!"

"You ask for it!" Yugo responded. "First I activate Kendama's effect and banish Taketomborg from the Graveyard to inflict 500 points of damage!"

Just then, Bruno spotted an Action Card in a transparent bubble at the side of the track and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Acceleration! This card cancels the damage from Kendama's effect!"

Kendama fired a beam of blue energy from the tip of its lance at Bruno. Just as it was about to hit though, Bruno's D-Wheel sped up and caused the attack to hit the ground in the spot where he was only a split second before.

"I attack Hyper Librarian with Kendama!" Yugo announced.

"I activate my Trap, TGX1-ABT!" Bruno announced. "When a Tech Genus monster I control is attacked, this card negates that attack and lets me special summon a Tech Genus Tuner monster from my deck! I summon Tech Genus Striker in Defense Mode!"

Appearing next to Hyper Librarian was a man clad in a black bodysuit with two thin green stripes running down the front. Covering the top half of the man's face was a blue helmet with a gold eye on the front and two flat wing-like fins on the sides. Futuristic blue armor covered the warrior's knees, forearms, shoulders, and parts of his chest. The armor on his chest connected to a belt around his waist that had a large U-shaped device attached to the back.

"That Trap card had a really weird name," Rua remarked. "I mean, are those letters and numbers supposed to mean something?"

"ABT is short for Attack Block Tuner," Sherry explained. "TGX1 refers to the Tech Genus monsters that the Trap summons from the deck."

"When a level four or lower monster is special summoned to the field, I can special summon Tech Genus Warwolf from my hand!" Bruno announced.

Materializing next to Striker was a bipedal wolf covered in scruffy brown fur. It had a long shaggy brown tail, and the front of its stomach was white. The beast had a totally mechanical left arm, with a large grey shoulder resembling a turbine and a thin cable-like upper arm. Its left forearm was blue and ended with a set of long curved grey claws. The beast's right eye was a cybernetic lens, and two thick gold metal bands were around its right upper leg.

"In that case, I use Chanbara to attack Tech Genus Striker!" Yugo announced.

"I activate my Trap, Urgent Tuning!" Bruno announced. "With Urgent Tuning's effect, I tune the level two Tech Genus Striker into the level three Tech Genus Warwolf for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Striker flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Warwolf and transformed the beast into three white stars.

"Limit release, Level Five! Booster launch, okay! In-creation, okay! Ground support, all clear!" Bruno chanted. "Go! Synchro Summon! Come on, Tech Genus Wonder Magician!"

The lights flashed and became a beam of white light that expanded outward. The light soon faded to reveal a young-looking woman with long pink hair and a green line painted across the right side of her face. She had on armored pinkish-red robes with a long bell-like skirt. Atop her head was a three-pointed conical hat with gold trim, and the pieces of armor covering each shoulder each had a pair of large grey blades attached. On the woman's back were two pairs of light-blue and silver metal wings.

"Because another Synchro Summon was just performed, Hyper Librarian's effect lets me draw another card!" Bruno announced. "Furthermore, when Wonder Magician has been Synchro Summon, her effect destroys a Spell or Trap card on the field! I use her effect to destroy your face-down card!"

Wonder Magician fired bolts of pink lightning from her hands. The attack struck the large representation of Yugo's set card, revealing it as Scrap-Iron Scarecrow before destroying it.

"I now activate my final Trap, TGSBC!" Bruno announced. "When a Tech Genus Synchro Monster is summoned during my opponent's Battle Phase, this card immediately brings the Battle Phase to an end and lets us both draw a card for each face-up Synchro Monster we control!"

"What the heck is TGSBC supposed to mean?" Crow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's short for Tech Genus Synchro Battle Cancel," Sherry explained.

"And now Yugo, I shall show you the power of Accel Synchro," Bruno announced. "I tune the level five Wonder Magician into the level five Hyper Librarian for a level ten Synchro Summon!"

"Wait, what?" Yugo exclaimed.

Bruno merely revved his engine. "Limiter Removal Ten! Main Base Booster Control! All Clear!"

"Are you seriously going to…?" Yugo began to ask.

"Power of Infinite Evolution, be unleashed in the here and now and break through this dimension and beyond!" Bruno chanted as he continued to speed up. "Go! Accel Synchro!

Suddenly became shrouded in a reddish-pink light as Wonder Magician turned into green rings and encircled Hyper Librarian. In a split second, Bruno and his monsters took off like a shooting star and vanished from sight. His opponent's sudden disappearing act caused Yugo's jaw to drop. Everyone up in the skybox except for Sherry had an almost identical reaction. Even Jack had been left totally stunned. Before Yugo or any of the others could figure out what happened, Bruno reappeared behind Yugo, bursting out of the same energy that had enshrouded him earlier.

Flying behind Bruno's D-Wheel was a large green humanoid robot. Its head had yellow eyes and a grey faceplate, and its forehead was decorated with an orange and red flame pattern. A pair of long grey wing-like horns adorned the sides of the robot's head, and it had large shoulders decorated around the edges with the same flame pattern that was on its head. On its back was a large black metal pack, and attached to the back of its waist was a pair of large blade-like wings. The robot carried a large black blaster with a red flame pattern decorating the barrel in its right hand.

Bruno pulled up alongside Yugo. "I think that effectively demonstrates Accel Synchro."

"Uh… I, uh… I end my turn," a stunned Yugo declared.

"Yugo ended his turn without setting any cards!" Hitomi realized. "And his opponent has a monster with 3300 ATK on the field!"

"Yeah, well I don't blame Yugo for making a slipup like that. Anyone would be pretty flustered after seeing a summoning like that," Crow pointed out. "I mean… how the hell did Bruno do that?"

"So this is the power of Accel Synchro," Jack observed.

"Pretty much," Sherry confirmed. "This technique would allow a normal duelist to dodge the monster catching effect of a Meklord Emperor. The idea here though is for Yugo to use the technique to evolve Clear Wing Synchro Dragon to a level where even the most advanced Meklord monsters can't touch it."

"Do you think Bruno could teach this technique to the other duelists we have here in the resistance?" Aki asked. "If the rest of us could use it, it would be a big help."

"We don't have that kind of time," Sherry told her. "If we did, that time would be better spent teaching Yugo the level of Accel Synchro that Bruno just showed him. As it is, Bruno can only teach him the basics."

"There's actually a level beyond that crazy technique?" Crow asked.

"So Bruno has told me," Sherry replied with a shrug. "I've never seen him use it though. But he's told me many times that this other level make what we just saw here look like nothing."

Bruno pulled ahead of Yugo with Switchblade Blaster following close behind as he drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, TGLLEX! When I have a Tech Genus Synchro Monster on the field, this card destroys the Synchro Monster on the field with the lowest level! Because Hi-Speedroid Chanbara has the lowest level, it shall now be eliminated!"

Switchblade Blaster aimed his gun at Chanbara and pulled the trigger. A blast of yellow energy fired from the barrel and struck Chanbara, causing it to explode in a burst of fire and smoke.

"What's TGLLEX supposed to mean?" Rua asked.

"It's short of Tech Genus Low-Level Exterminator," Sherry answered.

"You certainly seem to know a lot about Bruno's deck," Aki remarked.

"Yeah, well one day I asked Bruno what one of the name of one of his Spell cards meant, just like you guys have been doing," Sherry revealed. "He then went late into the night telling me what the name of each of his Spell and Trap cards was and how they were best used. I learned way more than I wanted to about Bruno's cards that night. I really like the guy, but he has the annoying habit if giving you way too much information."

"I attack Hi-Speedroid Kendama with Switchblade Blaster!" Bruno announced.

At that moment, Yugo spotted an Action Card at the edge of the track and grab it. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This card cancels your monster's attack!"

"In response I activate Switchblade Blaster's effect!" Bruno announced. "By discarding a card from my hand, Switchblade Blaster can negate the activation of an opponent's Spell or Trap card and destroy it! Afterwards, my opponent takes 400 points of damage!"

Switchblade Blaster fired a shot of yellow energy from his gun. The projectile struck the large version of Yugo's Action Card, causing it to shatter apart, and kept going until it hit the front of Yugo's D-Wheel. Yugo's motorcycle wobbled slightly as his life points dropped to 3100.

"Switchblade Blaster! Eliminate Kendama!" Bruno commanded. "Plasma Gun Blade!"

As Switchblade Blaster flew towards Kendama, a silver bayonet suddenly flipped out from the top of barrel on the robot's gun. The blade began to glow and crackle with yellow energy and extended to a length almost twice as long as the robot's body. Switchblade Blaster raised his weapon and brought it down onto Kendama, splitting the blue starship robot down the middle. The two halves of Kendama crackled with blue electricity before explosion. The resulting blast caused Yugo's life points to drop to 2000.

"Because I've just taken damage, I special summon Speedroid Gum Prize from my hand in Defense Mode!" Yugo announced.

Materializing next to Yugo's D-Wheel was a white and grey humanoid robot. Its round head had a white faceplate and a white and blue helmet with a red rectangular visor over the eyes and a small grey antenna on the left side. Its upper arms and upper legs were both grey, as was its midsection, and it had red lines on its chest in the form of a V. A smaller red V was on the white armor covering the robot's crotch, and both its shins were decorated with a pattern of blue lines over a large yellow rectangle with a thin red line at the edge. On its back was a very large white, blue and red box resembling a pack of gum.

"That ends my turn," Bruno announced.

"Yugo's lost half his life points while Bruno's haven't even been touched," Ruka observed.

"Plus that monster of Bruno's can stop practically all of Yugo's Spell and Trap cards," Hitomi added. "I don't see how he can get out of this."

"You kids know nothing," Jack told them. "Yugo is far from being defeated. That strange monster of Bruno's may have a lot of power, but Yugo has one monster that can easily surpass it."

As Yugo rounded the next corner of the track, he spotted an Action Card that Bruno seemed to miss.

Yugo quickly grabbed the Action Card and looked at it before drawing the next card from his deck. "I summon Speedroid Horse Stilts in Attack Mode!"

On cue, Yugo's cream-colored mechanical horse appeared on the track next to Gum Prize.

"When Horse Stilts has been normal summoned, I can special summon another Speedroid from my hand!" Yugo announced. "I summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

Yugo's metallic blue pyramid-shaped die materialized on the field next to Horse Stilts.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level four Horse Stilts for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed oranage and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Horse Stilts and transformed it into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward. In seconds the light faded, and Yugo's cybernetic dragon emerged with a roar. Clear Wing looked down at Yugo and gave his master a soft growl.

Yugo smirked. "Glad to have you back too, buddy. Now let's finish this! I tune the level one Gum Prize into the level seven Clear Wing for a level eight Synchro Summon!"

Gum Prize flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Clear Wing and transformed the dragon into seven white stars.

"Shine the wings that store the holy light and strike down your enemies with its radiance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a beam of white light that shot down the track and expanded outward. Seconds later the light faded and Crystal Wing emerged with a roar.

"I now activate Gum Prize's effect!" Yugo announced. "When Gum Prize has been sent to the Graveyard as Synchro Material, I can send the top card of my deck to the Graveyard! If the card I send is a Speedroid monster, the Synchro Monster that Gum Prize was used to summon gains 1000 ATK!"

Yugo then took the top card from his deck and immediately inserted it into Graveyard slot of his duel disk. A ghostly image of Gum Prize then appeared on the field and the large box on his back opened at the bottom. A glowing pink brick fell from the back of the box and unwrapped itself, revealing it as the card for Speedroid Pachingo-Kart.

"Because Pachingo-Kart was sent to the Graveyard by Gum Prize's effect, Crystal Wing gains 1000 ATK!" Yugo announced. "Plus when Crystal Wing does battle with a level five or higher monster, he gains that monster's ATK during the battle! Which means this next attack will finish you off!"

"If you're so confident that you can end this duel right here, then come at me," Bruno dared.

"You asked for it!" Yugo responded. "Crystal Wing! Attack Switchblade Blaster! Krystallos Gale Edge!"

Crystal Wing roared and took off into the air as he left a trail of white light in his wake. Once he got as high into the air as he could in the underground arena, the crystalline dragon zoomed down towards Switchblade Blaster like a missile.

"I activate Switchblade Blaster's effect!" Bruno announced. "Once per turn, I can banish Switchblade Blaster from the field to negate one monster's attack!"

Just as Crystal Wing was about to collide into his target, Switchblade Blaster suddenly became enveloped in a pillar of yellow energy that shot up from the ground. The phenomenon caused Crystal Wing to come to a complete halt. When the pillar of energy faded, Switchblade Blaster was nowhere to be seen.

"Switchblade Blaster will return to the field at the end of this turn," Bruno announced.

"He won't get the chance!" Yugo declared. "I activate the Action Card I found earlier, Second Take! When a monster's attack has been negated, Second Take allows that monster to make another attack during the same Battle Phase! Crystal Wing! Attack Bruno directly! Krystallos Gale Edge!"

Crystal Wing took back off into the air again like a rocket. Once he had gotten high enough, the dragon made a sharp turn and zoomed back down towards Bruno's D-Wheel. Bruno smirked right before Crystal Wing collided into his D-Wheel, creating an explosion of white light that took his life points from 4000 to 0 in an instant. When the light faded, the duel had ended and Crystal Wing was nowhere to be seen. Yugo and Bruno both came to a complete stop on the track.

"Very good!" Bruno praised as he dismounted his vehicle. "That last battle proved what I had said earlier about Crystal Wing being the strongest Synchro Monster currently in existence. But you can take that power even further."

"You know if you had grabbed that last Action Card before I did, this duel might've ended a little differently," Yugo pointed out as he removed his helmet.

"My goal in that duel was not to win, but to demonstrate the power of Accel Synchro," Bruno pointed out. "I was also able to protect Switchblade Blaster from being destroyed, which for me was about as important. But I'm sure you now understand just how powerful this summoning technique is."

"And you really think I can pull it off?" Yugo asked.

Bruno nodded as he approached him. "There are three requirements to Accel Synchro. The first one is speed. It should only take a few simple adjustments to your D-Wheel's engine for you to reach the velocity needed to pull it off. The second requirement is this card."

With that, Bruno reached into his pocket and pulled out a card that he held out for Yugo. Yugo took the card and looked at it. It was a Synchro Monster that he had never seen before.

"Hi-Speedroid Ten-Eyed Dice?" Yugo spoke as he looked at the card's name. "Where'd you get this?"

"The man that Sherry and I work for, Rudger Goodwin created it," Bruno revealed. "This is a Tuner Synchro Monster designed to fit your deck's strategy."

"A Tuner Synchro Monster. Is that the second requirement for Accel Synchro?" Yugo asked.

"Correct," Bruno replied with a nod. "The third requirement is a mental state known as Clear Mind. It is only through achieving Clear Mind that an Accel Synchro Summon can be achieved. Yugo, from my observations of you, I believe that Clear Mind is a state that you can easily achieve. You seem to have an ability to be so focused on a single goal or task that you totally tune out your surroundings."

Yugo had to admit that Bruno was probably onto something. Rin had more than once given him the same observation, and sometimes that trait would get him into trouble. Once back at the apartment building where he and Rin used to live, Yugo barged into Rin's room looking for a Trap card he had left there the night before, totally clueless that Rin was standing there only half dressed. Ever since that incident, Yugo made it a point to knock on Rin's door before entering.

"You have a lot of potential, Yugo," Bruno continued. "But we should begin your actual training as soon as possible if we're to have any hope of defeating Iliaster."

Yugo nodded and put his new card into his Extra Deck. "Then let's get started!"

"Well guys, we should probably start getting things ready for the attack," Crow decided up in the skybox.

"You can all do what you want?" Jack told the others as he headed for the door.

"And what the heck are you planning to do while the rest of us take care of actual work?" Crow asked as Jack reached the doorway.

Jack looked back at them. "I've got some training of my own to do. If one of my rivals is working to get stronger, than I'm going to do the same!"

* * *

Four days had gone by, and the duelists of the resistance were making final preparations to head for Neo Domino. Crow was being force to stay behind due to his injuries. The redhead had gone down to the hanger to wish everyone good luck before they left and almost immediately spotted Yugo with Jack and Bruno.

"You guys better be careful out there," Crow told them as he approached.

"There's no need to worry about us," Jack told him. "Before this day is over, Iliaster will finally be crushed."

"I believe that Yugo is strong enough now that he can take down Rex Goodwin," Bruno spoke.

"Well Yugo, it's all up to you," Crow told him.

"Don't worry. Goodwin's going down!" Yugo confidently declared.

"We're ready to head out!" Ushio announced. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Crow stepped back and watched as Yugo, Jack, and all of the other duelists at the base drove out of the hanging. Saiga and Izzy were going with as well in a special van that had some equipment Bruno needed to help with Rin's rescue. In moments, Yugo and the others were out of the hanger and zooming across the wasteland towards Neo Domino.

 _'Just hang on a little longer, Rin,'_ Yugo thought to himself. _'I'll have you back in no time at all!'_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I didn't really go too crazy with trying to reinvent Bruno's deck. I did decide to at least give T.G. Blade Blaster and ARC-V style upgrade, but that was about it. Since this was just kind of a minor duel, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Of course if I had been thinking, I probably would've given Bruno a new Tuner Synchro Monster as well.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	33. Storming the Capital

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 33: Storming the Capital

The tension was high as Yugo and the others came ever closer to the city limits of Neo Domino. Many of the invading duelists wondered if they were going to come out of the operation without getting assimilated into the collective. Yugo on the other hand was only focused on two things: defeating Goodwin and getting Rin back, not necessarily in that order. He had no clue just how powerful Goodwin was, but Yugo was determined to succeed one way or another. As they continued to get ever closer to the city, the raiding party could see the energy pulses from the pyramid in the city's center shooting into the sky.

"There's something I've been wondering about for a while now," Ushio spoke. "What's the deal with those lights that keep firing into the sky?"

"Those pulses of light are sending energy into another dimension," Bruno answered.

"Why?" Matsuri asked with a raised eyebrow. "What weird purpose would that serve?"

"Residing in that other dimension is a power even worse than Iliaster," Bruno told them. "If Rex Goodwin succeeds in releasing that power, the world may be forever doomed to serve him and his master, Leo Akaba."

"Which is all the more reason for us to stop him right now," Sherry added. "As it is, we've already let that pyramid sit there for too long."

"I don't care what the hell that pyramid's doing!" Yugo declared. "The only thing that matters right now is defeating Goodwin and getting Rin back!"

Within a few more minutes, the raiding party entered the part of the city that used to be known as the Commons. Everything was practically as they were before the last time they were in Neo Domino, with one small exception. The people out walking the streets living an imitation what would be called daily life were just standing there and watching them as they drove by. Ushio and the members of Team Unicorn noticed that there were people in the windows of the surrounding buildings watching them as well. It was as if the people had dropped everything to come and watch a parade.

"I get the feeling that we were expected," Ushio deduced.

"Man! This is just creepy!" Sid declared.

"No kidding!" Matsuri agreed.

"Let's just stay focused on the plan," Sherry told them. "Remember, no matter what, we make sure Yugo, Bruno and your tech guys get to Goodwin's fortress."

A few more minutes had passed by the time the invading duelists and the van carrying Saiga and Izzy made it onto the main highway. It was not long before they were on the route that would take them straight to the pyramid. Only a few seconds after driving onto that route though, some of the neighboring highway bridges moved and connected to the one that the raiding party was on.

The screen of Bruno's D-Wheel began to beep. "We've got a small squadron coming at us from our next left! At least five droids!"

"We all know what to do!" Sherry told them. "No matter what, Yugo gets to that pyramid!"

"We're up first!" Andre declared. "Team Unicorn, move out!"

Breo and Jean both nodded and followed their leader onto the bridge with the approaching droids. The rest of the raiding party kept on going.

"I hope those guys get out of that fight okay," Sid spoke.

"We all knew the risks of this mission when we signed up for it," Ushio told him. "Besides, those three are tough."

Bruno's screen began to beep again. "Another squadron coming up on our right! This one is made up of eight droids!"

"Anastasia, you and I should handle this one!" Aki decided.

Anastasia nodded. "I'm with you to the end, Mistress Aki."

"I'll go with you two!" Sherry decided. "Even with the powers you two have, two against eight is a little steep."

"Yugo! Give my best wishes to Rin!" Aki told him.

"You got it!" Yugo replied with a thumbs-up.

With that, Aki, Sherry and Anastasia zoomed off down the next bridge on their right towards a small army of droids. Seconds later, Shinji noticed a small explosion in the distance out of the corner of his eye. It was in the direction that Team Unicorn had gone.

"I hope that blast was from one of those damn robots and not one of our guys," Shinji spoke.

Bruno's screen began to beep again. "Another squad of six droids coming up on our left!"

"Guess Matsuri and I will take those," Shinji decided.

Matsuri pulled up closer to Shinji. "Hey… we're gonna get out of this together, right?"

Shinji smiled and nodded. "Damn right we are." He turned his attention to Yugo. "Yugo! The rest of us we'll give you all the time we can! Remember, everyone's hopes are riding on you!"

"Don't worry! I won't let anyone down!" Yugo declared.

Shinji nodded to him before he and Matsuri drove off down the bridge that would take them to the oncoming six-droid squad. Everything was once again calm along the highway for at least another four or five minutes. Then Bruno's scanner began to beep again.

"Another squad's coming up on the left!" Bruno reported. "Only four droids this time."

"Sid and I will take that one!" Ushio decided. "You up for this partner?"

Sid smirked. "Just try not to get in my way, old man."

"Yugo! Good luck in there, kid!" Ushio told him.

With that, Ushio and Sid zoomed off to take on the latest squadron of droids. Once again, everything on the road was quiet. Minutes seemed to go by, and the silence continued.

 _"Hey! How much longer until we get to this pyramid?"_ Saiga asked over the radio from his van.

"It shouldn't be too much longer," Bruno answered.

 _"I hope we get there quick,"_ Izzy added. _"With most of the others off fighting droids, I'm feeling kind of exposed here."_

Bruno's scanner began to beep again. "We've got another droid coming in from the right!"

"How many this time?" Yugo asked.

"Just one, but…" the color drained from Bruno's face. "According to these readings, it's the elite model droid that Sherry dueled! The one that captured Rin."

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed. "We don't have time to deal with a droid like that!"

"Just leave that pile of scrap to me," Jack told them.

"Jack, while you are one of this era's most powerful duelists, this opponent may be too much even for you," Bruno told him. "Your Synchro Monsters would be totally neutralized against it."

"Don't underestimate me!" Jack shot back. "That droid will fall before me just like every other droid I've faced! Especially after the training I've done these past four days."

"Jack, you…" Yugo spoke.

"Yugo! You have a bigger grudge against Goodwin than I do!" Jack told him. "Make sure to crush him for both of us!"

"Don't worry! I will!" Yugo assured him.

Jack nodded and moved his D-Wheel onto the bridge that NX-000 was approaching from and stopped to wait for him. Yugo and the others kept on going to the pyramid.

"I really don't think it was wise for Jack to take on that droid alone," Bruno spoke.

"Don't worry about Jack," Yugo told him. "If anyone can take down that droid, he can."

* * *

Jack remained where he was, watching as NX-000 came closer. In a few moments, the elite security droid reached the intersection can came to a total stop.

"You will move and allow this unit to pass," NX-000 spoke in its inflectionless mechanical voice. "If you do not move, this unit will have no choice but to eliminate you."

"The only way you're getting to Yugo is through me!" Jack declared. "Either we duel or you leave!"

"Your proposal is acceptable," NX-000 replied as he turned his D-Wheel back on. "Action Field on. Crossover Accel."

An explosion of white light went off in the sky above and rained several Action Cards down onto the highway. Both Jack and NX-000 took off down the road. In a flash, Jack's circular D-Wheel zoomed past his mechanized opponent and stole the first corner from him. As Jack pulled further ahead, NX-000 beeped as if confused.

"Surprised that I could outpace that advanced D-Wheel of yours, eh?" Jack asked with a triumphant smirk. "That's what you get for underestimating the king! Now, for my first move I summon Red Sprinter in Attack Mode!"

Jack's flaming red horse demon materialized next to his D-Wheel.

"Using Red Sprinter's effect, I special summon Red Resonator to the field!" Jack announced.

On cue, the fiery Resonator demon appeared on the track next to Red Sprinter.

"Because Red Resonator was special summoned, I use his effect to increase my life points by an amount equal to Red Sprinter's!" Jack announced.

Red Resonator began to give off a red aura and fired sparks of red light from the orb on his rod at Jack's D-Wheel. Jack's life points rose to 5700.

"I tune the level two Red Resonator into the level four Red Sprinter for a level six Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Red Resonator clinked his tuning fork before changing into two rings of red light. The rings encircled Red Sprinter and transformed the horse demon into four white stars.

"King of the dog star who set the heavens ablaze! Tear apart these earthbound toothless dogs!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now, Celestial Wolf Lord, Red Sirius!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal a bipedal wolf with blue eyes and a body covered in red fur. Both of the wolf's arms ended with another head. Sleek golden armor covered the top of the wolf's main head, while the top of the head on each arm was covered by golden armor with long curved spikes. The beast's torso was also covered in gold armor with long curved spikes on the back, with the armor on its chest styled to looked like a demonic face with sharp fangs and two red glowing eyes. Gold armor with bright-red trim covered the wolf's thighs, and two thin silver chains connected the heads on the wolf's arms to the armor on its back.

Jack spotted an Action Card on the edge of the road to his right and grabbed it. "I end my turn!"

NX-000 drew its first card. "This unit discards Meklord Emperor Wisel, Meklord Emperor Skiel and Meklord Emperor Granel to summon Meklord Astro Mekanikle."

A pillar of red energy shot up next to the bridge from the city below. In seconds the energy faded to reveal the large white robot that was Mekanikle.

"This unit activates Mekanikle's effect and equips it with Celestial Wolf Lord, Red Sirius," NX-000 announced.

Mekanikle's chest opened up and launched several red energy cables that snared Red Sirius. The wolf creature struggled as he was pulled off the ground and turned into crimson energy that was pulled into Mekanikle's chest.

"Due to Mekanikle's effect, its ATK rises from 4000 to 6400," NX-000 announced.

"I activate the Action Card, Attack Lock!" Jack announced. "This card prevents Mekanikle from attacking this turn!"

Suddenly several thin black chains around Mekanikle's midsection, preventing the robot's arms from moving.

"Calculating…" NX-000 spoke. "This unit activates Mekanikle's second effect. By sending Red Sirius to the Graveyard, you take damage equal to its ATK."

Mekanikle's chest opened back up and fired a blast of red energy down at Jack. The attack struck Jack and caused his D-Wheel to wobble as his life points dropped to 3300. After a few moments, the attack ended and Mekanikle's chest closed back up.

Jack smirked. "Nice shot, but all you've done is hurt yourself. When Red Sirius is sent to the Graveyard, its effect can reduce the ATK of an opponent's monster by 2400!"

A black vortex opened up in the pavement just behind Jack's D-Wheel and a ball of red energy flew out of it. The energy force turned into the head of a wolf and howled before flying into Mekanikle's chest.

"Calculating… calculating…" NX-000 spoke. "This unit ends its turn."

"You're really starting to disappoint me," Jack declared as he drew his next card. "From what LeBlanc told me, I was expecting more of a challenge. This is what I get for hoping that a robot could be a worthy opponent. I summon Force Resonator in Attack Mode!"

Appearing by Jack's D-Wheel was another Resonator demon with tattered dark-green robes and a yellow frilled collar. The banner that hung down the front of its chest was red and had orange and green markings resembling the face of a fish to eel. On the demon's back was a large ornate blue sphere almost twice as large as its body. The sphere was decorated with white markings and a golden ban near the top.

"Because I just normal summoned a Resonator monster, I special summon Red Warg from my hand!" Jack announced.

The fiery bipedal wolf that was Red Warg materialized next to Force Resonator.

"I tune the level two Force Resonator into the level six Red Warg for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Jack announced.

Force Resonator fired bolts of yellow lightning from his fingertips into the air before changing into two green rings of light. The rings encircled Red Warg and transformed the beast into six white stars.

"The heaven and earth shall tremble before the king's might! Let the power of the one and only supreme ruler be carved into your soul!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The savage soul, Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend!"

The stars flash and became a blast of flames that expanded outward. Jack's battle-scarred dragon emerged from the flames with a roar as he flapped his wings.

"I now activate the second effect of Red Sirius!" Jack announced. "When a Red monster has been Synchro Summoned while Sirius is in the Graeveyard, I can equip that monster with Sirius to have it gain 1200 ATK!"

The same ghostly red wolf head that had struck Mekanikle earlier reappeared and struck Red Dragon's chest. The energy changed into the same plate of armor that was on the chest of Red Sirius.

"I activate Red Dragon's effect!" Jack announced. "Once per turn, Red Dragon can destroy all other special summoned effect monsters on the field with an ATK equal to or lower than his own and deal 500 points for each one! Absolute Power Flame!"

Red Dragon struck the pavement with his fist, sending a wave of lava across the battlefield. Mekanikle was hit by the wave and exploded on impact, raining metal debris onto the road and the city below. NX-000's life points dropped to 3500.

"Red Dragon! Attack that piece of junk directly and end this!" Jack commanded. "Crimson Hell Burning!"

Red Dragon reared back his head before breathing out a stream of crimson flames at the mechanical duelist. Before the attack struck, NX-000 spotted an Action Card on the side of the road to its left and grabbed it.

"This unit activates the Action Card, Evasion to negate your monster's attack," NX-000 announced.

Just as the flames were about to hit, NX-000 swiftly drove his D-Wheel to the right and successfully dodged the attack.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Jack announced. "You're definitely a little better than the average droid, but there's no way that a pile of scrap like you can defeat me! Before this duel is done, I'll rip you apart like the trash you are!"

* * *

"Blanc Fleur! Attack that hunk of junk directly!" Sherry commanded. "Thorn of White Glory!"

Chevalier de Blanc Fleur dashed in and struck a security droid several times in the chest with her rapier. The droid's life points dropped to zero and its head exploded. Aki meanwhile had Black Rose Extinction Dragon on the field while Anastasia had already summoned both Alpha White Fang – Orion of the Frozen Axe and Alpha White Fang – Desdemona of the Bloody Moon.

"That was the last of them," Sherry told the others.

"At least the last of that squad," Aki responded as she looked further down the road.

Another squad of at least ten droids was coming towards them at top speed. Each droid's life points had already fallen to 2000 for entering an already active Battle Royale.

"This new batch of droids should be easy enough to defeat, but I'm sure they will be even more to come after them," Anastasia assumed. "It's only a matter of time before they wear us down. Despite our power, we're up against an army of thousands."

"Even so, we need to keep fighting as long as we can," Aki told her. "Long enough for Yugo to get to Goodwin and end this."

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Sherry responded. "Now let's do this!"

* * *

NX-000 drew its next card. "This unit banishes Meklord Astro Mekanikle from the Graveyard to special summon Meklord Astro Omega Nova."

A massive pillar of fiery red energy suddenly erupted from the ground underneath the bridge. The energy soon subsided to reveal the massive red robot that had defeated Sherry.

"White Omega Nova is on the field, Synchro Monsters of level eight or below cannot attack or activate their effects," NX-000 announced. "This unit activates Omega Nova's effect to equip itself with Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend."

"I activate my Trap, Red Howl!" Jack announced. "When the opponent activates a monster effect while I have a Red monster on the field, Red Howl negates that effect and halves the ATK of all monsters that my opponent currently controls!"

Just as Omega Nova's chest began to open up, Red Dragon let out an ear-splitting roar that causes the robot to spark with blue electricity. Omega Nova's chest closed back up and its ATK fell to 2250.

"This unit sets one card on the field and end its turn," NX-000 announced. "It would be in your best interest to surrender peacefully at this point. You cannot win. All you can do is delay the inevitable. On this unit's next turn, Omega Nova will be free to use its effect and finish you. Your resistance is futile."

"A machine like you can never understand this, but I'll tell you anyway! A duelist never gives up as long as he can draw cards from his deck!" Jack declared. "Besides, there's no way I would ever yield to a mindless pile of scrap like you!"

With that, Jack drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Resonator Call! Using this card, I add another Red Resonator from my deck to my hand! Next I summon Red Resonator in Attack Mode!"

Another fiery Resonator Demon appeared next to Red Dragon.

"When Red Resonator has been normal summoned, I can special summon a level four or lower monster from my hand!" Jack announced. "I summon a third Red Resonator to the field!"

On cue, another Red Resonator materialized on the track next to the first one.

"Because the third Red Resonator was special summoned, I use its effect to increase my life points by an amount equal to Red Dragon's ATK!" Jack announced.

The Resonator demon gave of a crimson aura and struck Jack's D-Wheel with fiery sparks from its rod. Jack's life points rose to 7500 upon being hit.

"And now I will show you the power I've perfected before coming on this mission!" Jack declared. "The power of my burning soul! I tune both level two Red Resonators into the level eight Red Dragon Archfiend for a level twelve Synchro Summon!"

Both of the small demons clinked their tuning forks together and transformed into four rings made of red flames. The rings encircled Red Dragon and became a fiery star.

"The King and the Devil shall at this moment be as one! A ruthless spirit! Shake the very fabric of creation itself!" Jack chanted. "Synchro Summon! The power to crush the gods! Burning Red Nova Dragon!"

The star exploded outward, and from it emerged Red Dragon in a brand new form. He was larger and was mainly bright red and dark black. Glowing orange scars covered the beast's body, and on his back were four very large blade-like wings that glowed orange along the bottom edge. Blade-like spikes ran down the length of his back, and the end of its tail resembled a large axe. Long silver hair grew from the back of the dragon's head, while on the sides of his head were two horns that curved forward. On the front of the dragon's chest was a small blue diamond.

"Red Nova gains 500 ATK for every Tuner monster in my Graveyard!" Jack announced. "Since I have four Tuners in my Graveyard right now, his ATK is at 5500! I now activate Red Nova's effect! Once per turn, Red Nova can destroy all other specially summoned monsters on the field with an ATK score lower than his original ATK, and then deal 500 points of damage for each destroyed monster! Since Omega Nova now has an ATK of 2250, it will now be destroyed!"

Red Nova roared and swung the bladed end of his tail into the pavement. A pillar of lava suddenly erupted up from the pavement and totally enveloped Omega Nova. The crimson robot exploded upon being hit and NX-000's life points dropped to 3000.

"Red Nova! Attack that droid directly and end this!" Jack commanded. "Burning Crimson Soul!"

Red Nova roared and became enveloped in crimson flames before flying towards his target.

"This unit activates the Trap, Mirror Force," NX-000 announced. "This card destroys all monster in Attack Mode."

Red Nova ended up colliding with a barrier of white light, creating a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared though, Red Nova was still on the battlefield.

"Error! Error!" NX-000 spoke. "How is that monster still on the field?"

"A pathetic Trap like that is nothing before my dragon's ultimate form!" Jack declared. "The simple fact is that Red Nova can't be destroyed by my opponent's card effects! Now Red Nova! End this right now!"

Red Nova became shrouded in flames once again and collided into NX-000's D-Wheel. The droid's life points plummeted to zero, and it was flung from its D-Wheel as it exploded. Red Nova lifted the fallen droid off the ground with one clawed hand on its shoulder and another on its waist. With one hard twist, the dragon tore NX-000 in two as if twisting off a bottle cap and through both halves of the droid over the sides of the bridge. Both halves exploded before striking the ground as Red Nova let out a triumphant roar.

"These droids are becoming a waste of my time," Jack declared.

"Holy crap!" a familiar voice shouted.

Jack looked and saw Matsuri with Shinji at the intersection not far from where Jack had come to a stop. Apparently the route they had been dueling on intersected with Jack's and they had just defeated the squadron of droids they had been fighting. Both Shinji and the pinkette had witnessed Red Nova's final attack on NX-000 and their jaws were hanging open in total shock. Matsuri had Idol Queen Fantasia and four other Idol Girls already summoned, and all five had gone pale with fright. Idol Girl Ashley was holding her hand to her mouth as if she were about to throw up.

Shinji meanwhile had Assault Wasp Spear Dragon already active on the field. Red Nova noticed the insect-like dragon and growled at it. Spear Dragon appeared to be just as frightened as Matsuri's monsters.

"So, you two are still in the game," Jack observed.

"Never mind us! What the hell kind of dragon is it that you've summoned?" Shinji asked.

"That thing is totally dangerous!" Matsuri declared. "I mean… what the hell would that thing have done if you had just defeated an actual person?"

Before the conversation could get any further, the three heard the unmistakable sound of a large group of D-Wheels approaching. Another squad of at least ten or fifteen security droids was coming towards them. The life points of each one had already dropped to 2000.

"We can sit around chatting later!" Jack told the others. "Right now we need to finish breaking the rest of Goodwin's little toys."

* * *

Yugo and the others finally reached the pyramid without difficulty. Once they made it to the fortress's large front gate, Bruno began trying to hack the lock. After four or five tries, the gate finally opened up to reveal a massive entryway. The group quickly drove in before the gate could shut back up on them.

"Well, we're here," Yugo spoke. "So now what?"

"This is where we part ways for the time being," Bruno answered. "I'll work on rescuing Rin. Meanwhile, you go after Goodwin. If you keep going straight, you'll reach the heart of the fortress. I'm sure that you'll find Goowin there."

"Okay. Well before I go, what the heck is in that van?" Yugo asked.

"Saiga, open it up," Bruno requested.

Saiga gave a thumbs-up from the window before pressing a button on the dashboard. The rear of the van opened up and a ramp extended down from the back. Bruno pressed a button on the controls of his vehicle, and suddenly Rin's original D-Wheel emerged from the back of the van.

"I rigged it for remote operation," Bruno revealed. "I felt it best that Rin have the tools to defend herself in the event we're attacked while you're dealing with Goodwin."

"Good thinking," Yugo replied. "Well, I'm off. I had better see Rin when I get back, Bruno."

"There's no need to worry. She's in good hands," Bruno assured him.

Yugo nodded and zoomed off down the vast corridor up ahead. Within three or four minutes, the young turbo duelist reached the heart of the pyramid. To his surprise, Yugo found that the heart of the pyramid's foundation contained a wide circular racetrack. At the very center of the space though, Yugo saw a large silver cylindrical device that was firing pulses of green energy up into a shaft in the vast black high ceiling above.

"Welcome, Yugo. I've been expecting you," an echoing voice spoke. Yugo looked and saw Rex walking into the space from a passageway on the wall to his left.

"You bastard!" Yugo cursed. "You've got a hell of a lot to answer for! Where's Rin?"

"Rin is no longer your concern," Rex told him. "She is meant for much higher things. I know that you're the last person that Leo would want her involved with."

"I've come here to make you pay for everything you've done! Both to me and to the whole world!" Yugo declared. "Give Rin back now and I may go easy on you!"

Rex smiled and shook his head. "You really are a stubborn young man. I have no intention of releasing Rin, but I can easily honor your request for a duel. You've become a nuisance that I have no choice but to eliminate."

With that, Rex snapped his fingers. Suddenly flying out of the passageway he had emerged from was a small silver craft styled to look like a dragon. It had a single seat, three fins on its back like the fins of a rocket, and a single black jet booster. The craft lowered itself towards the ground, allowing Rex to get into it.

"Is that thing supposed to be a D-Wheel?" a surprised Yugo asked.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Rex asked. "This is one of the pieces of technology that have been salvaged from Seibal. I've actually thought more than once about having it mass-produced. Just think how powerful my security force would become."

"Can the talk!" Yugo told him as he drove out onto the track. "I don't care what sort of D-Wheel you have! One way or another, I'm shutting you and Iliaster down right now!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I apologize if this latest chapter wasn't my best work. Jack's duel with NX-000 kind of felt like filler to me as I was writing the thing. I also kind of felt like Burning Red Nova Dragon may have been a bit overpowered. I am proud of how Celestial Wolf Lord, Red Sirius turned out though. I had been thinking of making that card ever since the chapters with Yugo and Jack's duel.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	34. The Lord of Iliaster

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 34: The Lord of Iliaster

Yugo and Rex both moved their vehicles to the starting line of the pyramid's circular racetrack. As Yugo looked up at Goodwin atop the aircraft he was using as a D-Wheel, he realized how much he truly despised his opponent. This was the man who captured Rin and turned all of Neo Domino and most of the world into a mechanized wasteland, the man who had transformed him into a tool for conquest. Yugo could never forgive Rex for all of the crimes he had committed. This duel was his chance to make him pay for all of it.

"You know Yugo, a part of me was actually looking forward to this duel," Rex admitted. "I have a truly great respect for your dueling talents, ever since you defeated Jack. You're really something of a prodigy."

"Shove it!" Yugo responded. "Let's get this started!"

"Very well. I think we'll keep things for this duel simple," Rex decided as he pressed a button on his flying D-Wheel's controls. "Action Field on! Crossover Accel!"

One of the balls of green energy rising up from the pyramid's floor suddenly exploded in midair and rained Action Cards down onto the track. As soon as Yugo and Rex got the green light, they both tore down the track at high speed. Despite the apparent speed of Rex's flying D-Wheel, Yugo managed to pull ahead and take the first turn.

"I summon Speedroid Horse Stilts in Attack Mode!" Yugo announced.

On cue, Yugo's cream-colored mechanical steed appeared next to his D-Wheel.

"Using the effect of Horse Stilts, I special summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!" Yugo announced.

The blue pyramid-shaped die materialized on the track next to Horse Stilts.

"Next I play the Spell card, Speed Upgrade!" Yugo announced. "This card lets me increase the level of a level four or lower Speedroid monster by one until the end of the turn! I use this effect to change Horse Stilts to level five! Now I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level five Horse Stilts to Synchro Summon a level eight monster in Defense Mode!"

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange before changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Horse Stilts and transformed the mechanical steed into five white stars.

"Mechanical soldier from the stars above! Charge forth at high speed and crush the unjust with your shield!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Level eight! Hi-Speedroid Model Mecha Road Block!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal a large humanoid robot with thick black wheels built into its feet. The machine was colored blue and white, with green markings resembling sergeant stripes on the front of its shoulders and the white armor covering the top of its feet. It had a white faceplate and yellow eyes, along with a rectangular yellow light embedded in the front of its helmet like a third eye. On its back was a pair of armored attachments that almost resembled wings, and hanging from the armor covering the back of its waist was a large black shield with blue rims on the sides. Seconds after he appeared, the robot reached back and took hold of the shield, holding it in front of itself in preparation for an attack.

"Impressive," Rex remarked. "To summon a barrier monster with 3000 DEF on the first turn. I wasn't even aware that you had a monster like this, nor even considered that you might have such a card considering your normally offensive strategy. Still, it was foolish of you to summon a Synchro Monster to use against me!"

"I end my turn!" Yugo announced.

A confident smile was on Rex's face as he drew his first card. "First I play the Continuous Spell, Granel's Blessing. Then I summon Meklord Army of Wisel in Attack Mode!"

On cue, a white Wisel Army robot appeared on the track besides Rex's flying D-Wheel.

"I activate the Spell card, Meklord Sacrifice to destroy Army of Wisel!" Rex announced. "I think you know what's coming next, Yugo."

The Wisel Army robot sparked with electricity for a few moments before exploding. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Meklord Emperor Wisel was standing in its place.

"Because my monster was destroyed by a card effect, I was able to summon Meklord Emperor Wisel to the field," Rex explained. "Because a Meklord monster was special summoned to the field, I use the effect of Granel's Blessing to draw one card. Now then, I activate Wisel's effect to equip itself with Model Mecha Road Block!"

"Big mistake!" Yugo declared as Wisel's chest began to open up. "I activate Road Block's effect! Once during either player's turn, when an opponent's monster attacks or activates its effect while Road Block is in Defense Mode, I can switch him to Attack Mode to negate that attack or effect and destroy that monster!"

Wisel launched the green energy cables from its chest, only for Road Block to knock the cables away with his shield. The humanoid robot then took hold of the blue rims on the sides of the shield and pulled on them, revealing that they were handles. As Road Block pulled the handles out, the shield unfolded into a pair of thick vice-like scissors. Road Block then zoomed across the track on his wheels and came face to face with Wisel, who was just about Road Block's height, and clamped onto the white robot's torso with his weapon.

"Let's go!" Yugo called out. "Shield Vice Crush!"

Road Block's weapon began to squeeze into Wisel's torso, causing the armor to crack and buckle. A few seconds later as the pressure increase, Wisel exploded in a burst of fire and smoke, raining debris onto the battlefield. Despite Wisel's destruction though, Rex's calm and confident smile remained.

"I'm not that easy to beat, you smug bastard!" Yugo told him.

"Indeed. Once again you've lived up to my expectations of your ability," Rex praised. "It's that sort of skill that made me decide to have you play the role of my herald, Aten. That should honor you, by the way. Originally, I had planned to have Jack fill the role of Aten, but you proved yourself to be superior."

"You're telling me to feel honored that you used me like a puppet to conquer the world? Don't give me that crap!" Yugo shot back. "That wasn't an honor! That was hell! You used me to hurt others and make them a part of your damn collective!"

"You have to look at the big picture, Yugo," Rex told him. "Everything that I have done has been for a greater good. Thanks to me, the human race is almost truly united as one. My collective has brought an end to the conflict and need for competition that would've ultimately led down the path to self-destruction!"

"You're full of it!" Yugo told him. "You call that damn collective of yours living? Maybe it is for you since you're the one controlling it, but it isn't for everyone you've assimilated! Everyone that you've wired into Iliaster is a prisoner, being told what to do and think all the time! They don't even laugh or cry, or do anything in life that's worth enjoying! How can people live if they can't be themselves?"

"And would you rather have things like they were before?" Rex asked. "You know what this city was like before I took it over. That society was the very symbol of the damage the human competition can do! The constant struggle between those of the Tops and the Commons would've eventually led to destruction! I put an end to that cycle and allowed this city's people to achieve true unity! And you would want things to go back to the way they were before?"

"Okay… you got me there," Yugo admitted. "The way Neo Domino was before was pretty bad… but I or somebody else would've found a way to make it better! If I had been able to win the Friendship Cup and become the city's champion, maybe I would've found a way to change the way this city works!"

"How naïve! You truly think you could've changed a corrupt system like that from within?" Rex asked. "As long as the Commons and the Tops continued to clash with one another, there would never be a chance for peace. Human competition only breeds destruction! That is an absolute truth!"

"You're wrong about that!" Yugo declared. "Sure, too much competition can be a problem. But it's though competing with one another that human beings can make themselves better! It allows us to push each other to be the best we can be! I know that if I didn't have strong rivals like Jack, I wouldn't be the strong duelist that I am today!"

Rex shook his head. "What a foolish boy you truly are. What you're saying assumes that rivalries are always friendly, but overtime rivals can become bitter towards one another. The bitterness a person feels towards their rival can turn to hatred, and overtime their perhaps once friendly competition turns into a conflict that doesn't end until one of the parties is destroyed. No! My way, the way shown to my by Leo Akaba, is the only answer!"

"Dammit!" Yugo cursed. "It's useless arguing with someone as messed up in the head as you!"

"Then let's get back to what we were doing, shall we?" Rex decided. "I set one card on the field and end my turn."

Yugo drew his next card. "Road Block! Attack him directly! Iron Speed Knuckle!"

Road Block folded his shield weapon back up and placed it back on the holder on his back. A pair of knuckle guards suddenly extended from the back of the robot warrior's wrists and rotated down to cover his fists. Road Block zoomed towards Rex with his metal fist ready to punch.

"I activate my Trap, Draining Shield!" Rex announced. "This card cancels your monsters attack and converts its ATK points into my life points!"

Just as Road Block came in striking range, a glittering silver shield appeared on Rex's left arm. Rex raised his new shield and used it to block the punch from Road Block's metal fist. The impact knocked Rex's flying D-Wheel back slightly and caused the shield to shatter to bits, but his life points rose from a full 4000 to 6600. After completing his attack, Road Block moved back over to Yugo's side and took hold of his shield once more, raising it to block the next enemy attack.

"After Road Block attacks, he goes back into Defense Mode," Yugo announced. "I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

Rex drew his next card. "Now to teach you how powerless you truly are against me."

* * *

Bruno zoomed through the wide outer corridors of the pyramid fortress with Rin's D-Wheel following in his wake. He was fortunate that each level of the pyramid was connected by a wide ramp, otherwise getting to Rin would've been even more difficult. While Bruno didn't know precisely where he was going, he at least knew what level she was on thanks to the tracking device he had secretly placed on her riding suit in the event of her capture. The pyramid's walls had prevented the tracker's signal from getting outside, but now that Bruno was inside the fortress, he was picking it up loud and clear. It was only a matter of time before he reached Rin's location.

As Bruno rounded the next corner, a pair of security droids on foot was standing in the middle of the hall. Both of them had drawn energy pistols.

"Halt! You are not authorized to be in this area," the droids spoke in unison. "Leave now, or these units will be forced to…"

Before they could finish, Bruno zapped both the droids with bolts of a pinkish-red electrical energy from the front of his D-Wheel. Both droids sparked with electricity for a few moments before their heads exploded. Bruno zoomed past both of them as their smoking bodies fell to the ground.

 _"Saiga to Bruno. Come in,"_ the mechanic's voice spoke over Bruno's radio.

"Bruno here. What's up?" the speed duelist responded.

 _"Just calling in to check on your progress,"_ Saiga answered. _"How soon before you get Rin?"_

"It shouldn't be too much longer," Bruno answered.

 _"Well try and speed things up if you can,"_ Saiga requested. _"Izzy and I are getting more and more nervous about being here."_

"Understandable. I'll try to break Rin out as fast as I can," Bruno assured him.

 _"Ten-four,"_ Saiga replied. _"Say, I've got a question for you since I've got you on the line. Now that we're literally in the heart of Iliaster, would it be possible for me and Izzy to maybe disrupt the device that connects Goodwin to the rest of Iliaster?"_

"I'm afraid not. The systems inside the pyramid that maintain Goodwin's connection to the collective would be too heavily guarded," Bruno told him. "The only chance we have right now is for Yugo to defeat Goodwin."

 _"I was afraid you were going to say that,"_ Saiga responded. _"You think the kid can pull it off?"_

"I'm quite positive he can," Bruno answered. "I've found that when Yugo sets his mind to doing something, there's practically nothing that can keep him from achieving that goal."

* * *

"For my first move, I banish Meklord Emperor Wisel from the Graveyard to special summon Meklord Pharaoh Wisel Ascended!" Rex announced.

A pillar of white silver light shot up from the track near Rex's flying D-Wheel, fading a few moments later to reveal Wisel in a new form. Attached to the robot's chin was a red and black beard like the one worn by the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, and atop its head was the white and red bowling pin-shaped crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The frame around the window on Wisel's chest had turned gold, along with his once grey hands and midsection. Attached to the robot's left wrist was a piece of white armor that resembled a scarab with a green diamond-shaped gemstone on the back and a pair of silver pincer blades extending from the top. Wisel's lower half had become like the body of a horse with four powerful legs.

"Because a Meklord was just special summoned to the field, I use the effect of Granel's Blessing to draw one card," Rex announced. "Now I use the effect of Wisel Ascended to equip it with Model Mecha Road Block!"

"Obviously you weren't paying any attention during your last turn!" Yugo told him as Wisel's chest began to open up. "I activate Road Block's effect to negate Wisel's effect and destroy it!"

To Yugo's surprise though, Road Block remained totally motionless as Wisel deployed his energy cables. As he looked closer, Yugo noticed that Road Block's eyes had gone totally dark. Wisel's cables ensnared Road Block and transformed the robot warrior into a ball of green energy, which was instantly sucked inside the mechanical pharaoh.

"What… what the hell just happened?" a stunned Yugo asked.

"Synchro Monsters of level eight or below cannot attack or activate their effects as long as Wisel Ascended is on the field," Rex explained. "You might be interested to know that Wisel Ascended is part of a series of prototype Meklord cards designed to deal with Synchro Monsters like that troublesome dragon of yours. Now then, because Wisel Ascended has absorbed your monster, its ATK rises from 3000 to 5600."

At that moment, Yugo spotted an Action Card on the track to his right and quickly scooped it up. "I activate the Action Card, Attack Lock! This card prevents Wisel Ascended from attacking this turn!"

"A futile move!" Rex declared. "At this moment I activate the other effect of Wisel Ascended! Once during either of our turns, Wisel can negate the activation of a Spell card and destroy it!"

Beams of blue-green light fired from the eyes of the golden cobra head adorning the front of Wisel's crown and shot the large version of Yugo's Action Card. Upon being hit, the card shattered into particles of gold light.

"When Wisel Ascended uses this effect, he gains 500 ATK until the end of the turn," Rex announced. "Now Wisel's ATK is at 6100, more than enough to finish you off!"

"It'll take more than that powered-up Meklord of yours to beat me, Goodwin!" Yugo declared.

Rex chuckled. "I've said before that you're one of the most powerful duelists of your generation, but you were always incapable of defeating me! Others have tried and failed, including your old friend… Yusei Fudo."

Yugo's eyes widened. "You… you're the reason why Yusei never showed up for the final duel of the Friendship Cup?"

"My brother had recruited him to try and put a stop to my plans," Rex revealed. "Yusei was extra motivated to defeat me, since I was partly responsible for his father's death. The night before his final match with Jack, Yusei showed up to challenge me."

"And… and you beat him?" Yugo asked.

"I felt that dueling him would've been a waste of time, and I had other matters I needed to attend to," Rex told him. "Plus getting him out of the way allowed me to position Jack as the city's champion. So just as Yusei and I were about to duel, I cast him into a dimension void."

"Are you saying… he can't come back?" Yugo asked in a low voice.

"I'm afraid not," Rex answered. "Consider this duel as a sign of my respect for you, Yugo. But this is as far as I go! I use Wisel Ascended to attack you directly!"

Wisel galloped across the track towards Yugo as the pincer blades on its left arm began to crackle with electricity. Just as the mechanical pharaoh got halfway towards its target though, it suddenly fell into a large hole that suddenly formed in the road. Rex's life points dropped to 5100 soon after.

"What… what did you do?" a stunned Rex demanded to know.

"I activated my face-down card, Trap Hole of Spikes," Yugo answered. "Thanks to this card, Wisel Ascended was destroyed and you took half his original ATK as damaged."

"Well… it seems I may have underestimated you just a bit," Rex realized. "But this is only a minor setback for me. In the end, you still won't be able to defeat me. I shall set one card on the field and end my turn."

Yugo drew his next card. "Goodwin… telling me about what you did to Yusei was the worst mistake you could've made. It's bad enough that you took Rin and turned me into a weapon, but now you've given me another big reason to hate you! For Rin, Yusei, and all the other people you've hurt, I'm going to make you pay!"

* * *

 **Important Author's Note:** First of all, I'd like to take a moment to thank my good friend, Firebolt the Blazing Saint. He was the one who came up with the Model Mecha Road Block monster that Yugo used in this chapter. Firebolt based the cards design off of the Gundam Gusion Rebake Full City from _Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans_. I liked the card the moment he presented me with the idea, not only because of it's awesome stats, but also because its effect made it an excellent anti-Meklord card that Yugo could use.

And now for the main reason for this little note at the end. I hate to tell everyone this, but I probably won't be able to update this chapter until early next week. I'm leaving town on a two-day road trip with family this Friday, and I don't know if I'll be able to finish the chapter before then. I'll try my best to get the next chapter wrapped up before I leave, but odds are you'll all have to wait until next Monday or Tuesday for the next installment of this duel.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	35. Comet Dragon

**Author's Note:** Well, I'm back from my little vacation! Sorry for the delay, everyone. I'd also like to take this moment to thank Firebolt the Blazing Saint and another reviewer for spotting a little mistake I made with Goodwin's life points at the end of the last chapter. The error has since been corrected.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 35: Comet Dragon

Bruno had reached Rin's room with little difficulty and attempted to pick the door's electronic lock. The device was proving to me a little more difficult to hack than he had anticipated. Clearly Rex had gone to extra trouble to make sure Rin couldn't get out of her room without his permission. After a few more attempts though, the lock finally yielded and the metal door slid open. Rin immediately noticed the door opening and got off the bed the moment she saw Bruno.

"Rin! I trust you're okay," Bruno spoke.

"Better than I was," Rin responded as she quickly came to the door. "Where's Yugo?"

"He's at the bottom of this fortress facing Yugo as we speak," Bruno answered.

"And you let him go in alone?" Rin asked as she pushed her way past Bruno through the doorway. She immediately spotted her D-Wheel and mounted it.

"I'm sure that Yugo is doing okay," Bruno told her. "With the summoning technique I've taught him, he should be able to defeat Goodwin with little difficulty."

"Yeah, well I'm not taking any chances!" Rin declared as she switched the controls of her D-Wheel to manual. "After hearing what that bastard did to Yusei, I'm not letting Yugo face him alone!"

With that, Rin zoomed off down the corridor before Bruno could do anything to stop her.

Bruno let out a heavy sigh. "It looks like I should've told them both about Yusei Fudo sooner."

* * *

"Because I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop from my hand!" Yugo announced.

On cue, Yugo's train of red mechanical tops materialized next to his D-Wheel.

"I use Terrortop's effect to add Red-Eyed Dice to my hand!" Yugo announced. "Next I activate the effect of Horse Stilts from the Graveyard and banish it to send Speedroid Den-Den Daiko Duke from my deck to the Graveyard! Then I banish Den-Den Daiko Duke to special summon Red-Eyed Dice from my hand!"

The gold metallic cube that was Red-Eyed Dice appeared on the track next to Terrortop.

"When Red-Eyed Dice has been summoned, I can change the level of another Speedroid monster on the field!" Yugo announced. "I use that effect to change Terrortop's level from three to six! I now tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level six Terrortop for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Terrortop and transformed the machine into six white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward. In seconds the light faded away, and Yugo's cybernetic dragon appeared with a roar.

"Thanks to Granel's Blessing, I gain half the ATK of each monster you Synchro Summon as life points," Rex announced.

Rex and his flying D-Wheel glowed briefly with a feint blue aura as his life points rose from 5100 to 6350.

"I summon Speedroid Double Yoyo in Attack Mode!" Yugo announced.

The green two-wheeled RC machine appeared on the track next to Clear Wing.

"I use Double Yoyo's effect to bring Red-Eyed Dice back from the Graveyard!" Yugo announced.

On cue, Red-Eyed Dice reappeared on the track next to Double Yoyo.

"Using the effect of Red-Eyed Dice, I change Double Yoyo's level from four to one!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level one Double Yoyo for a level two Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Double Yoyo and transformed it into a single white star.

"Winds of divine chance gather here and now! Call forth the possibilities of a new speed's horizon!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Level two! Hi-Speedroid Ten-Eyed Dice!"

The star flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that shot down the track and expanded outward. In moments, the light faded to reveal a large red metallic ten-sided die. Each segment of the die was decorated with a gold and white eye like the kind that decorated Yugo's other dice tuners. The top and bottom points of the die were decorated with gold trim. Orbiting around the top and bottom hemispheres of the die like satellites were two sets of five black metal spheres. Each sphere gave off its own fiery green aura.

"Thanks to Granel's Blessing, I gain half that monsters ATK as life points," Rex announced as his life points rose slightly to 6850. "Of course I don't know why you went to such trouble to summon a monster that only has 1000 ATK."

"I activate the effect of Red-Eyed Dice!" Yugo announced. "Once per turn, Red-Eyed Dice lets me change the level of a Wind Synchro Monster from one to ten until the end of my opponent's next turn! I use this effect to change Clear Wing's level from seven to eight!"

"I don't know what sort of move you're trying to pull, but it will do you no good in the end," Rex confidently declared.

"We'll see about that!" Yugo told him. "For now though, Clear Wing! Attack this bastard directly! Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Clear Wing took off high into the air and flew after Rex's D-Wheel as his body became shrouded in a twister of green wind. Rex quickly saw an Action Card down on the track ahead and did a barrel roll to grab it just as Clear Wing closed in.

At the last second, Rex grabbed the card and rotated his craft back to normal position. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This card cancels your dragon's attack!"

Right at the very moment when Clear Wing was about to strike, Rex's craft rose higher into the air and cause the dragon to miss. Clear Wing looked up at Rex and let out what sounded like a roar of anger. Rex thought for a moment that Clear Wing might despise him just as much as his master seemed to, but he quickly dismissed the thought.

"I suppose you could attack me with that other monster of yours, but what good would it do?" Rex told him. "As you have just seen, my D-Wheel allows me to grab any Action Card I wish with ease."

"I… end my turn," Yugo announced.

As Rex drew his next card, Yugo knew that he had very little time to pull off the summoning technique that Bruno had taught him. He had to try it before Rex summoned his next monster, which he was certain would be another Meklord Pharaoh. Yugo took a deep breath and cleared his mind, tuning out everything except the sound his D-Wheel's engine made and the feeling of the air hitting his face.

"The end of your existence begins now!" Rex declared. "I activate the Spell card, Foolish Burial and send Meklord Emperor Skiel from the deck to the Graveyard!"

Yugo revved his engine. "Spread those celestial wings that carry the hopes and dreams of tomorrow and shoot through your enemies at a speed beyond light!"

"I banish Meklord Emperor Skiel from the Graveyard and summon Meklord Pharaoh Skiel Ascended!"

"Accel Synchro!" Yugo called out in about the exact instant that Rex announced the summoning of his monster.

Suddenly, Yugo and his two monsters became grounded in a pinkish-red energy as he zoomed ahead of Rex and as Ten-Eyed Dice transformed into two green rings of light an encircled Clear Wing. A split second later, Yugo and his monsters had vanished into thin air. At about the same time, a new version of Meklord Emperor Skiel appeared beside Rex's D-Wheel. The end of its bird-like head had gained the white and red bowling pin crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and it had a pair of massive wings covered in red and gold metallic feathers. The window frame and beak on Skiel's chest had become gold, as had the laser cannon on its underside.

As Rex scrambled to figure out what had happened to his opponent, Yugo suddenly zoomed up from behind him out of the same kind of light he had vanished into moments before, with his dragon following close behind him in a new form. The new dragon looked very much like Crystal Wing, but was twice as large and had some very noticeable differences. The pieces of armor that were blue on Crystal Wing had become red, including the originally blue segments of armor on its tail. On its head, the dragon had five long red crystalline horns, and shards of crystal growing from the armor on his shoulders had turned red as well. There were two pairs of large red crystalline wings on the dragon's back, and his chest was covered by a large chunk of purplish-grey space rock with two pairs of small red crystal shards growing from the top and bottom. On its waist in place of legs, the dragon had two white and black rocket boosters with pieces of space rock like the armor on its chest. At the very end of the dragon's long tail was a red crystalline mace.

"Be born!" Yugo called out. "Comet Wing Synchro Dragon!"

At the sound of his new name, the dragon let out a loud roar that echoed throughout the entire fortress.

* * *

Out on the highway, the group of Jack, Matsuri and Shinji had met up with Aki's group to take out more droids. As the two teams finished taking out another set of droids, Black Rose and Red Nova suddenly looked back in the direction of the pyramid and both let out an ear-splitting roar.

"What's going on with Aki and Jack's dragons?" Sherry asked.

"If those two are going nuts, I'm getting the hell out of here," Matsuri declared. "Shinji and I saw Red Nova literally tear a droid in half, and I do not want the same thing to happen to me."

"It's Yugo… he's gotten Clear Wing to evolve," Aki told them. "Both our dragons can sense it."

"So this means that Yugo was able to pull off that Accel Synchro technique you told me about?" Shinji asked.

"It would seem that way," Sherry answered. "If Yugo really has gotten Clear Wing to evolve, Goodwin no longer stands a chance."

"I for one never had any doubt," Jack remarked. "After all, Yugo is one of the few I consider to be a true rival. Someone like Goodwin never had any hope of defeating him."

* * *

"What… how did you summon that monster?" a stunned Rex demanded to know.

"I used a new level of Synchro Summoning, Accel Synchro!" Yugo explained. "Using that power, I was able to evolve Clear Wing into a monster that can easily beat your Meklord Pharaohs! Comet Wing is a level ten, which means his attacks and effects can't be suppressed by the effects of your monsters!"

"Perhaps not, but it was still foolish of you to summon a Synchro monster in my presence!" Rex told him. "For one thing, the summoning of that dragon of yours was still a Synchro Summon! Which means I gain half of its 3500 ATK as life points!"

Rex and his flying D-Wheel glowed again briefly with a blue aura as his life points rose to 8600.

"Because a Meklord was just special summoned, I use the effect of Granel's Blessing to draw a card," Rex announced. "And now I activate the effect of Skiel Ascended and use it to absorb Comet Wing!"

"Now you're the one being foolish!" Yugo declared as Skiel's chest started to open up. "I activate Comet Wing's effect! During either turn, when another monster on the field activates its effect, Comet Wing can negate that effect and destroy that monster! Stardust Sanction!"

Just as Skiel launched the green energy cables from its chest at Comet Wing, the dragon roared and fired a massive blast of crimson energy from his crystalline wings. The cables were repelled, and Skiel Ascended exploded only seconds after being hit by the wave of energy, raining pieces of debris down upon the track.

"And now the second part of Comet Wing's effect!" Yugo announced. "When Comet Wing destroys a monster using his effect, my opponent takes damage equal to the destroyed monster's ATK!"

Suddenly the piece of space rock armor on Comet Wing's chest divided down the middle, and the two halves opened up to reveal a metal honeycomb filled with small red missiles underneath. Comet Wing roared and fired every single missile in his chest at Rex. Rex attempted to avoid the attack, but was hit by every single missile and nearly crashed into the track. At the last second, Rex pulled out of the crash, but his life points had fallen to 5900.

Rex scowled as he looked back at Yugo and his dragon. "At this moment, I activate my Trap, Meklord Sarcophagus! When a Meklord monster is destroyed by my opponent's card effect, Meklord Sarcophagus lets me summon a Meklord Pharaoh from the Graveyard, ignoring its usual summoning conditions! I use this effect to revive Meklord Pharaoh Wisel Ascended!"

A large white and black metal sarcophagus appeared on the track next to Rex's flying D-Wheel. The front of the metal coffin opened up down the middle, and Wisel Ascended burst out of it.

"When the effect of Meklord Sarcophagus successfully resolves, I gain life points equal to half the ATK of the monster it was used to summon!" Rex announced.

The metal sarcophagus shattered into particles of blue light that flowed into Rex's flying D-Wheel. In moments, the silver-haired duelist's life points rose to 7400.

"The monster summoned using Meklord Sarcophagus cannot attack or use its effects during the turn it was summoned in this manner," Rex announced.

"Not that using its effect would help you," Yugo told him. "Now that I've got Comet Wing on the field, you're pretty much finished!"

"I suppose I should've destroyed you the moment I had the chance," Rex remarked. "Leo once warned me that the one who wielded Clear Wing Synchro Dragon would be a major threat to us. Why I did not heed that warning, I will never know."

"I know why. It's because you're an arrogant son of a bitch who thinks he's perfect!" Yugo told him. "Well you're not so perfect now, are you?"

"I shall set one card on the field and end my turn," Rex calmly announced.

"My move!" a familiar voice spoke from behind. Yugo looked back to see that Rin was on the track and just drawn a card.

"Intrusion penalty," the computerized voice of her D-Wheel spoke. "2000 life point deduction."

Rin felt a light electrical shock come from her D-Wheel as her life points dropped from 4000 to 2000 in an instant. The green-haired girl recovered from the shock though and sped up towards Yugo and Rex's position.

"Because I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Windwitch – Ice Bell!" Rin announced.

The regular blue-haired version of Ice Bell materialized next to Rin's D-Wheel.

"Because Ice Bell was special summoned, I use her effect to summon Windwitch – Glass Bell to the field!" Rin announced.

On cue, Glass Bell materialized in the air next to Ice Bell. As soon as Glass Bell appeared, Rin pulled up alongside Yugo.

"I use Glass Bell's effect to add Windwitch – North Polar Bell to my hand!" Rin announced.

"Rin, it's not like I'm not glad to see you, but what the heck are you doing here?" Yugo asked.

"When Bruno told me you were dueling Goodwin, I just couldn't stay away," Rin told him. "Especially after hearing about what kind of things Goodwin's capable of. Yugo… Goodwin told me that Yusei came to face him, and…"

"I know," Yugo interrupted. "The bastard bragged about it to me earlier. I'm going to make him pay for that right here!"

"Well I'm going to back you up in any way I can," Rin told him. "Because if anything bad happened to you in this duel… I don't think I could take it."

"You're much more defiant than I realized, Rin," Rex remarked. "Leo would be very disappointed in you right now."

"Right now, I don't care what my father thinks!" Rin declared. "Yugo and I are taking you down together!"

Rex sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Very well. Clearly you need to be disciplined. This duel will be the perfect opportunity for me to do that."

"I tune the level four Glass Bell into the level three Ice Bell for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Glass Bell flashed orange and changed into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Ice Bell and transformed the other witch into three white stars.

"Midwinter wind, harness ice and snow and blow a storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level seven, Windwitch – Winter Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of light that expanded outward, fading moments later to reveal Rin's ace monster.

"Thanks to the effect of Granel's Blessing, I gain half of Winter Bell's ATK as life points," Rex announced as his life points climbed to 8600. "Furthermore Rin, your monster cannot attack or use its effect as long as Wisel Ascended is on the field."

"That doesn't matter right now," Rin declared. "I set one card on the field and end my turn."

"Which means it's my move!" Yugo announced as he drew his next card. "Comet Wing! Attack Wisel Ascended! Shooting Star Impact!"

Comet Wing roared and took off high into the air, leaving a trail of crimson light in his wake. As soon as he came high enough, the cybernetic dragon made a sharp turn and came towards Wisel Ascended like a rocket.

"Your attack may destroy my monster, but I'll take minimal damage!" Rex pointed out.

"That's what you think!" Yugo told him. "When Comet Wing battle a level four or higher monster like Wisel Ascended, he gains that monster's ATK during the battle!"

Seconds later, Comet Wing collided into Wisel Ascended, creating an explosion that rained fire and debris all over the track. Rex's life points dropped to 5100.

"I now activate my Trap, Harsh Winter Wind!" Rin announced. "When my opponent takes damage while I had a Windwitch Synchro Monster on the field, Harsh Winter Wind inflicts half that Windwitch's ATK as damage!"

A wave of wind filled with snow and ice suddenly struck Rex's D-Wheel from the front, covering from front of the craft in a layer of frost. His life points dropped even further to 3900.

"I activate my Trap, Vengeance of the Meklord Pharaohs!" Rex announced. "When a Meklord Pharaoh has been destroyed by battle, this card inflicts half the destroyed monster's ATK as damage to the attacking player!"

Suddenly a bolt of green lightning came down from above and struck Yugo's D-Wheel. Yugo cried out as his life points dropped to 2500.

"You should know that the nature of this duel has changed, Yugo," Rex told him. "Before, I was willing to just play around with you. But now that you've proven yourself to be a real threat, I must do everything in my power to eliminate you in order to protect Iliaster and to teach Rin a lesson!"

"It'll take more than a cheap trick like that to take me down!" Yugo declared. "I end my turn!"

"We shall see!" Rex spoke as he drew his next card. "I banish Meklord Emperor Granel from the Graveyard to special summon Meklord Pharaoh Granel Ascended!"

Materializing next to Rex's D-Wheel was an altered version of Granel. On the golden robot's head was a red and silver cobra hood headdress like those worn by Egyptian pharaoh. The ball of light inside the window on its chest was red instead of green, and the frame of the window was made of some sort of glittering blue metal. A silver and red beard like those worn by the pharaohs adorned the lower part of the robot's chest just under its window. The two large hover jets that the robot had in place of legs looked like the divided halves of a scarab.

"Because a Meklord was just special summoned to the field, I use the effect of Granel's Blessing to draw one card!" Rex announced. "By banishing a Meklord Pharaoh from my Graveyard, I can inflict damage to my opponent equal to that monster's ATK! And since I now have two opponents, I use this effect to target Yugo Sakaki! I banish Wisel Ascended in order to inflict 3000 points of damage!"

Suddenly a ghostly image of Wisel Ascended made of a blue-green energy appeared on the track and flew towards Yugo. Yugo frantically looked around and saw an Action Card up ahead on the track. He sped up to reach it, hoping that it was a card like Acceleration or something else that could block all or most of the damage. Just as the card came in Yugo's reach though, the ghost of Wisel Ascended impacted the tail of Yugo's D-Wheel, creating a fiery explosion that hurled Yugo and his vehicle into the air. Upon being hit, Yugo's life points dropped to zero and Comet Wing vanished from the field.

For Rin, everything that happened next happened in total slow motion. Yugo was thrown off his D-Wheel and hit the ground right near the track. His D-Wheel crashed just a few feet away from his position. While the motorcycled appeared to be mostly intact, Yugo was not moving at all. Rin called Yugo's name over and over again a few times, but he did not respond.

"Your young friend most likely did not survive that last attack," Rex told her. "He brought it upon himself for opposing me. Do not worry though. I will not be as hard on you. The second effect of Machine Pharaoh's Soul now activates and raised my life points by an amount equal to half of Wisel's ATK. And that in turn causes the ATK of Granel Ascended to increase as well, its ATK is equal to half my life points."

Rex and his flying D-Wheel briefly gave off a green aura as his life points rose to 5400. At the same time, Granel's ATK climbed from 1950 to 2700.

"I activate the effect of Granel Ascended and use it to equip himself with Windwitch – Winter Bell!" Rex announced.

Granel's chest opened up and ensnared Winter Bell with cables made of a crimson energy. Winter Bell was transformed into a ball of red light and pulled into the robot pharaoh. Granel's ATK rose from 2700 to 5100.

"I now activate the final effect of Granel Ascended!" Rex announced. "By sending one of the monsters equipped to Granel Ascended to the Graveyard, I gain life points equal to that monster's ATK!"

Granel fired a beam of crimson light from its chest at Rex's D-Wheel, causing his life points to rise to 7800. When the blast ended, Granel's ATK had changed to 3900.

"And now to finish putting you in your place," Rex spoke. "Granel Ascended! Attack Rin directly and end this duel! Phraonic Cannon!"

Granel aimed the cannon on its left arm and Rin and fired a powerful beam of light down at her. Suddenly Rin grabbed an Action Card lying at the side of the track.

"I activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Rin announced.

A second later, Rin swerved her D-Wheel to the left and avoided Granel's attack. The cannon blast ended up striking an empty spot on the track up ahead.

"It seems I have no choice now but to end my turn," Rex announced. "You should've made it easier on yourself though and just taken the attack. After all, what good would it do you now to keep going?"

"You… bastard!" Rin spoke in a low hate-filled voice. "You hurt… my Yugo. You may have killed him. And I'm not… going to let you get away with it!"

Suddenly the gemstone in Rin's bracelet began to give off a dazzling green light. A powerful wind seemed to pick up around her, and Rex felt the temperature in the room suddenly drop. Rex looked down at Rin and saw that her hate-filled eyes were glowing with an orange demonic light.

"I'll never forgive you for what you've done!" Rin declared, almost shouting. "Before this duel is over… I'm going to kill you!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The concept behind Yugo's Synchro Tuner, Ten-Eyed Dice ended up coming together incredibly fast. I had decided right away that it should be another Dice Tuner, and after thinking about it more I came up with the idea that Ten-Eyed Dice was the supreme form of Red-Eyed Dice. I suppose I just could've had Yugo use Crystal Wing to summon Comet Wing Synchro Dragon, but I wanted to show of the level change effect that Ten-Eyed Dice had. Plus it saved me a step.

The big duel against Rex Goodwin has almost reached it's conclusion. You never will believe what Rin is going to do next. Until next time, stay tuned.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	36. Cold Rage

**Author's Note:** Without delay, here's the conclusion to the duel against Rex Goodwin. Consider this swift update as an apology for the way I left things hanging for so long last week.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 36: Cold Rage

"Rin! What has gotten into you?" Rex asked, startled by the green-haired girl's glowing eyes. "What is this power that I'm seeing?"

"Silence!" Rin shouted with an echoing voice. "Prepare yourself for your death!"

As Rin drew the next card from her deck, the card seemed to glow with an eerie blue light. Another blast of cold wind also radiated out from her D-Wheel, causing Rex's flying craft to swerve in the air. Rex suddenly had a terrible feeling that he had taken things too far.

"Using the scale one Windwitch – South Polar Bell and the scale ten Windwitch – North Polar Bell, I now set the Pendulum Scale!" Rin announced.

Rin set the cards for the two Windwitches in question at the far ends of her D-Wheel's duel disk blade, causing the word, Pendulum to flash across it in multicolored letters. A second later, the Polar Bell twins appeared inside ethereal blue tubes to Rin's left and right.

"With the scale set at one and ten, I can simultaneously special summon monsters with levels from two to nine!" Rin announced.

The numbers one and ten appeared beneath South Polar Bell and North Polar Bell respectively in orange alien writing. Soon after, a giant crystal pendulum appeared in the air above the track and began to draw a circle of blue light.

"Swing! Pendulum of ages! Draw an arc of light across the heavens!" Rin chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The giant circle drawn by the pendulum became a portal that showed a world of blue light beyond. As soon as the portal appeared, a ball of crackling black energy shot out of it like a cannonball and struck the track.

"Silent witch of the frozen underworld!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Chill Bell!"

The ball of black energy faded to reveal a new and unsettling monster flying beside Rin's D-Wheel. It was a young-looking woman with chalk-white skin, long raven hair that grey half way down the length of her back, and eyes that were pitch-black except for pale green irises. Atop her head was a large black conical hat with a tattered brim and a large grey bow on the front. Her outfit was a white bodysuit with black, a short skirt that was open in the front, and black gloves and boots. On the front of the woman's chest was a large red bow with a black crystal broche on the front. The woman rode atop a blue crystal broomstick with a black and silver bell on the end in place of bristles, and in her right hand was a blue crystal wand. She also had a sinister smile on her face that sent a small chill down Rex's face.

"Truly an impressive-looking monster," Rex admitted. "But with only 1700 ATK, what use is it against Granel Ascended."

"When Chill Bell has been special summoned from my hand, I can use her effect to resurrect an Windwitch Synchro Monster from my Graveyard," Rin announced. "I use her magic to call Winter Bell back from the underworld!"

Chill Bell waved her wand, and suddenly a large misty black portal appeared on the track. In seconds, Winter Bell rose out of the portal and moved to fly alongside Chill Bell.

"Any monster summoned using Chill Bell's effect cannot attack, and its effects are negated," Rin announced. "And now… I shall tune Chill Bell into Winter Bell!"

"What? But that's impossible!" Rex exclaimed. "Chill Bell is also a level seven monster! Both their levels would add up to fourteen, and it's not possible for any monster to have a level that high!"

"But Chill Bell isn't a normal Tuner," Rin informed him as a small and rather insane smile formed on her face. "She's a Minus Tuner! By subtracting Chill Bell's level from the level of another monster, I can summon a new type of Synchro Monster with a level equal to that total!"

"Subtracting levels?" a stunned Rex spoke. "But… that would mean that the level of the summoned monster would be…"

"That's right!" Rin spoke before he could finish. "I tune the level seven Chill Bell into the level seven Winter Bell for a level zero Synchro Summon!"

Chill Bell waved her want above her head and transformed into seven black stars. The stars penetrated Winterbell's body and turned her into a black transparent ghost with orange outlines and fourteen white stars flying around inside. The stars began colliding into one another, fading completely out of existence the moment they hit each other.

"Angel of Death from a world without light! Descend to this mortal realm and cast it into eternal winter!" Rin chanted as the stars inside Winter Bell's ghost continued to collide and fade out. "Dark Synchro Summon! Appear! Level zero! Windwitch – Zero Bell!"

As soon as the final two stars collided with one another and blinked out, the ghost of Winter Bell exploded and became a pillar of black energy that expanded outward only to fade away moments later to reveal a totally new monster. Its upper half was a silver skeleton with long arms and a blue breastplate with black lines covering the ribcage. The creature's head was like Winter Bell's, only the face was a silver skull with red eyes, and there were black lines covering its long pointed blue helmet. On its back was a pair of large black-feathered wings covered in a fine layer of frost. The lower half of the creature, connected to the end of its silver spinal cord, was a large silver and black bell with a large crack in its right side.

The moment Zero Bell appeared, the temperature inside the stadium dropped even further. Rex could see his breath coming out in small wispy clouds, and patches of frost were starting to form everywhere. At the same time, the dragon seal on Yugo's back had begun to glow.

Rin's small and slightly insane smile turned into a mad grin. "Your life ends here!"

* * *

As Jack's group finished fighting off another squadron of security droids, Sherry's eyes went wide and all of the color drained from her face. Aki instantly noticed that the blonde duelist was suddenly shivering.

"Sherry! What's wrong?" Aki asked out of concern.

"It's Rin… she's tapped into a power that she was never supposed to use," Sherry answered. "I can feel it."

"How could you possibly know something like that?" Aki asked.

"Rin and I have a sort of connection," Sherry explained. "You see we're tied together by blood. It's the reason why both of us are able to Pendulum Summon."

"What are you talking about?" Aki asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are you saying you and Rin are relatives of some kind?"

"It's too complicated and unbelievable to explain right now!" Sherry snapped. "All I can tell you is… something has gone incredibly wrong back at that pyramid… something that Bruno and I never should've let happen."

* * *

Saiga and Izzy had been sitting inside their van the whole time Bruno had been gone. A layer of frost had covered the vehicles windows, and they now had the heater on at full blast. Even with the heater on though, they were still shivering. Of course a car heater could only go so far. They were dressed for desert conditions and suddenly they were now in the Antarctic.

"Man! What the hell is going on out there?" Izzy asked.

"Damned if I know anymore," Saiga answered through chattering teeth. "I get the feeling though that our plan has gone off the rails somehow."

"I wish we could at least see what the hell was going on out there," Izzy told him. "You think you could go out there and scrape the frost off the windshield?"

"Like hell I will!" Saiga snapped. "For one thing, this van doesn't have an ice scraper! Besides, you couldn't pay me a thousand bucks to go out in that cold! If you want to scrape the windshield so badly, you go out and take care of it!"

"Like hell, man! Until the heat comes back, I'm not taking my ass off this seat!" Izzy responded. "Hell! It's probably frozen to it already anyway."

Suddenly the two of them heard the sound of an engine coming from outside. Saiga had developed a talent from telling the sound of one engine from another over the years, and he could tell that this engine was that of Bruno's D-Wheel.

"Saiga! Izzy! Are you two okay?" Bruno asked from outside.

"Oh, we're just peachy!" Izzy sarcastically responded. "Saiga and I are thinking of roasting some marshmallows later."

"Bruno, do you have any clue what's going on out there?" Saiga asked.

"I'm ninety percent certain that this is all because of Rin," Bruno answered. "She must've entered the duel with Goodwin, and my guess is that Goodwin must have inadvertently caused Rin to awaken a power that she was never meant to use."

"So what now?" Saiga asked.

"You and Izzy remain where you are!" Bruno ordered. "I'm going to see if there's any way for me to correct this problem."

With that, Saiga and Izzy heard Bruno driving off. The two of them could do nothing except sit and listen to the sound of their own chattering teeth.

* * *

"It's too late for you to repent, Goodwin!" Rin declared. "You're about to be punished for everything you've done."

Suddenly Rex burst out laughing, causing Rin to tilt her head in confusion. "I admit that you certainly caught me off guard, Rin. I never expected or even imagined this type of summoning. But you're forgetting one critical element. That Synchro Monster of yours has a level of zero. And because Granel Ascended is still on the field, it cannot attack or activate its effects."

"Are you sure about that?" Rin asked.

As Rex was about to question what Rin meant by that, he glanced and saw that Granel Ascended was covered almost totally in a thick frost. Its red mechanical eye had gone dead, and the red light that had been inside the robot's chest had totally disappeared.

"What?" Rex exclaimed. "What's happened to my monster?"

"Chill Bell's little parting gift is what happened," Rin explained. "When Chill Bell is sent to the Graveyard as Synchro Material, her effect lets me target one of my opponent's monsters and totally negate its effects until the end of my opponent's next turn. So now that Granel Ascended has been neutralized, I activate Zero Bell's effect! Once per turn, Zero Bell can destroy as many special summoned effect monsters on the field with a level higher than her own and inflict 500 points of damage for each one! Terminal Frost!"

Zero Bell flapped her wings, and suddenly a massive blast of snow and ice radiated out from her body. The wave struck Granel Ascended, and when it passed, the mechanical pharaoh was totally frozen in a large block of ice. The ice block cracked and totally shattered apart in a matter of seconds. All that was left of Granel were a few small chunks of ice no bigger than a pebble. Meanwhile, Rex's life points took a slight drop to 7300.

"You may have destroyed my final Meklord Emperor, but 2900 ATK points won't do much damage with my life points as high as they are," Rex pointed out.

"We'll see about that!" Rin told him. "Zero Bell! Attack him directly! Apocalypse Winter!"

A large ball of blue energy formed between Zero Bell's skeletal hands, and from it fired a massive blast of ice that struck the rear of Rex's flying D-Wheel. The craft swerved in the air as Rex's life points dropped to 4400.

"And now I activate Zero Bell's other effect!" Rin announced. "When Zero Bell inflicts battle damage, I can send the top card from my deck to the Graveyard! If the card sent to the Graveyard is a Windwitch monster, Zero Bell gets to attack again!"

With that, Rin pulled another card from her deck and immediately inserted it into her D-Wheel's Graveyard slot. "The card I just sent was Windwitch – Snow Bell, which means Zero Bell can attack again! Apocalypse Winter!"

Another ball of energy formed between Zero Bell's skeletal hands and fired another black of ice at Rex. Rex spotted an Action Card up ahead on the track and attempted to fly down to get it, but the blast caught the tail of his flying D-Wheel before he could get it and knocked him off course. His life points took another plunge to 1500.

"And now I use Zero Bell's effect again to send another card from my deck to the Graveyard!" Rin announced as she pulled another card from her deck.

Meanwhile, Yugo's fingers twitched a bit and his eyes slowly opened. He felt as though his back was on fire, and he immediately connected the feeling with his strange dragon mark. As Yugo slowly got up, he noticed how cold the stadium had gotten. Then he saw Rin and Zero Bell on the track chasing after Rex. Yugo also instantly noticed the strange state Rin was in, especially her glowing orange eyes. He remembered them glowing like that before back when she dueled Aki back at Divine's castle, but this was somehow very different.

"What the hell?" Yugo spoke as he tried to piece together what was going on.

"The card I just sent to the Graveyard was Windwitch – Rain Bell!" Rin announced. "Which means Zero Bell can attack again! Apocalypse Winter!"

Zero Bell opened fire again and blasted Rex with another shower of ice. The tail of Rex's craft took another hit, and his life points dropped to zero. Despite the duel being over though, Zero Bell was still on the field.

"I now use Zero Bell's effect again!" Rin announced as she pulled another card from her deck and tossed it into the Graveyard slot. "This time the card is Windwitch – Frost Bell, meaning Zero Bell can attack again!"

Zero Bell hit Rex with another blast of ice and snow. His D-Wheel remained in flight, but he seemed to be having a lot of trouble maintaining course.

Rin took another card from her deck and placed it into her Graveyard. "The card I just sent to the Graveyard was another Windwitch – Ice Bell, meaning Zero Bell gets to attack again!"

Yugo watching in horror Rex got hit with another icy blast from Zero Bell. As much as Yugo despised Goodwin, he knew that this was terribly wrong. Rin was not acting like herself at all. It was as though she had become possessed by some kind of demon.

Meanwhile, Rin gleefully took another card from her deck and placed it in the Graveyard. "This time the card is Windwitch – Drizzle Bell! Zero Bell gets another attack! Apocalypse Winter!"

Rex was hit by yet another icy blast from Rin's skeletal angel of death. His D-Wheel seemed to be having trouble staying in flight.

"I now use Zero Bell's effect again!" Rin announced as she pulled another card from her deck.

"Rin! Cut it out!" Yugo shouted at the top of his lungs. "STOP!"

Rin looked in the direction of Yugo's voice and her insane grin quickly faded. "Yu… go…"

Suddenly Rin's D-Wheel came to a complete stop. Zero Bell vanished from the track and her eyes and bracelet stopped glowing. The temperature inside the arena began to return to normal. Seconds later, Rin totally lost consciousness and fell from her D-Wheel. Yugo immediately rushed to Rin's side, calling her name. Meanwhile, Rex's D-Wheel hit the track with a fiery crash.

* * *

Ushio and Sid had met up with Team Unicorn and were helping them fight off the security droids. The five of them had just finished taking out another squadron, but a new set of ten droids was coming their way. They were all totally exhausted, and their decks were almost totally out of cards. It seemed like they were finished. Just as the droid came in striking distance, they suddenly came to a halt. Their heads sparked with electricity for a few moments before exploding.

"Hey! What the hell just happened?" Sid wondered.

Ushio looked around and saw other small explosions in the distance on the other highway bridges. He also noticed that some of the buildings in the city were sparking with electricity as well. Moments later, the five of them all heard the unmistakable sound of several people all screaming in pain at once coming from the ground below.

"It's like the city's suddenly gone nuts!" Breo declared. "What's going on?"

"I think… I think this means the collective of Iliaster has been shut," Jean theorized. "Yugo must've done it!"

"You mean… it's over?" Andre asked.

"Well it's about damn time," Ushio declared with a triumphant grin.

* * *

As Yugo held a still unconscious Rin in her arms, Bruno entered the arena and pulled up next to her D-Wheel. The duelist mechanic quickly dismounted and went over to see how the two were doing.

"What happened?" Bruno asked.

"Goodwin somehow managed to knock me out of the duel with a cheap shot," Yugo answered. "After that, I'm not sure what happened next. I was knocked out, and when I woke up, Rin had summoned this really nasty-looking monster that I had never seen before and was attacking Goodwin relentlessly. She kept hitting him even after she brought his life to zero."

"I see…" Bruno replied darkly.

"Rin wasn't herself at all," Yugo continued. "It was like she went totally nuts."

Both of them suddenly heard a groan from not far away. They looked and saw Rex flat on his back near the flaming wreckage of his D-Wheel.

"I'll look after Rin," Bruno told Yugo. "You should probably see how he's doing."

Reluctantly, Yugo gently sat Rin down and went over to where Rex was. Blood was trailing down from the corners of Rex's mouth. Yugo heard the sound of electrical sparks and saw that they were coming from Rex's side. Part of his shirt had been torn open to reveal that his side was made of metal.

Rex opened his eyes and let out a soft chuckle when he saw Yugo. "It must… give you great satisfaction… to see me… like this."

"What the hell did you do to Rin in that duel, you bastard?" Yugo asked.

"It seem that… the shock of your apparent death… accidentally caused Rin to awaken one of her… dormant powers," Rex answered. "A summoning technique passed down to her… from her Anunnaki ancestors."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yugo asked.

Rex let out another chuckle and wound up coughing. "In the end, I was undone by the power of a goddess… a goddess that I had sworn my life to serve. It seems that by trying to destroy you… the one who should be her most powerful enemy… I incurred her wrath."

"You're not making any sense," Yugo told him. "But I guess it doesn't matter. I'm going to enjoy watching you stand trial for everything that you've done."

"I'm afraid… you won't have the chance, my boy," Rex told him. "I don't have much time left in this world. Of course… I was living on borrowed time to begin with. I was already terminally ill, you see. I was able to prolong my life by replacing parts of my body with cybernetic implants, but there was nothing I could do to halt the progress of my… condition. My goal was to conquer this world and maintain order long enough for Leo to return and take over. But it seems… I've fallen a bit short."

"Yeah, well… you brought this on yourself," Yugo responded. "If you think I'm gonna feel sorry for you, you can just forget it!"

Rex shook his head. "I don't expect your pity… nor do I seek it. You and your friends can curse me all you like. But in the end… everything that's happened today… will not matter. You will all soon see… that even though I have lost this battle… I have ultimately won… the war."

After uttering those last two words, Rex's eyes slowly closed. Yugo watched as his breathing slowed and soon stopped completely. He stood there for a few more moments to make sure that Goodwin actually was dead, and then finally went back over to Rin and Bruno.

* * *

A few days later, Crow and almost all of the personnel from the resistance base arrived in Neo Domino to help clean things up. Ushio had reported that practically everyone that had been linked into the Iliaster collective had fallen into a coma and needed medical attention. Crow had shuddered at the thought of what sort of state the rest of the world was in now that the collective was essentially brain dead. Carly had already started getting in touch with the few parts of the world that had been untouched by Iliaster's tentacles to request a worldwide effort to give medical care to the rest of the world. It was clear that it was going to take the human race years to recover from this recent nightmare.

Crow and most of the convoy from the base headed straight for the resistance's temporary camp that had been set up right outside the pyramid. The redhead and those who had come with him noticed right away that the fortress was no longer sending pulses of light into the sky. Crow also noticed that large patches of ice had formed on the pyramid's walls, though he was at a loss as to how that was possible. Winter was still a long ways off. Crow recalled that the reports on Yugo's final battle with Rex were fairly vague and wondered if those patches of ice had something to do with the duel.

Upon reaching basecamp, Crow pulled his D-Wheel right next to the main tent and dismounted. One of the trucks from the convoy parked a few feet away from his position and Ruka, Rua and Hitomi got out the back. The trio of kids went over to join Crow as he took in the surroundings.

"You know… it's kind of weird being back here after all this time," Ruka remarked.

"I totally get where you're coming from," Crow agreed. "This place was an enemy stronghold for years. Now that the war is finally over though, we can finally make this city ours again."

"I really wish we could've seen Yugo's duel against that Goodwin creep," Rua spoke. "I bet it was pretty epic."

"I heard a rumor from someone that Rin was somehow involved in the duel as well," Hitomi recalled. "Do you suppose it's true?"

"I'll see if I can find out," Crow replied. "In the meantime, you three should go and help get the recovery effort set up. Iliaster may be gone, but there's a lot of work to do."

The three nodded and went to the other trucks to see what they could do to help. Crow meanwhile looked around and saw Ushio inside the main tent talking with Saiga and Andre.

"Well, you guys sure did a bang-up job here," Crow praised as he entered the tent, getting the three's attention. "Sorry I wasn't here to help."

"Don't sweat it. We knew you were here in spirit," Saiga responded.

"We've gathered up most of the citizens and put them in makeshift hospitals all over the city," Ushio reported. "The docs are going to have their hands full removing their implants."

"And your report said that Goodwin is dead?" Crow recalled.

"He got into a pretty nasty crash at the end of that duel," Andre confirmed. "The word is that he was already at death's door to begin with. A lot of his organs had been replaced with cybernetic implants. Bruno said that it was because of some kind of radiation poisoning that he suffered years ago. He didn't really get specific about it though."

"Well I'm certainly not gonna cry over the son of a bitch," Crow declared. "So what exactly happened in Yugo's duel with him."

Ushio looked at Andre and Saiga for a moment before answered. "To be honest, we haven't got a clue. Yugo, Bruno and Sherry have all been pretty tight-lipped about it."

"What about Rin?" Crow asked. "Does she know anything about what happened?"

"Rin's been knocked out since we took down Goodwin," Saiga answered. "Apparently she was involved in the duel somehow. Like I said though, Yugo and the others won't talk about it."

"Well that's just terrific," Crow sarcastically replied before sighing and rubbing the back of his head. "Well… maybe I'll go have a talk with Yugo myself."

"Actually before you do that, you might want to go have a word with Jack," Andre suggested. "He hasn't been a good mood."

"So? The guy isn't exactly Mr. Sunshine, you know," Crow pointed out.

"Yeah, but he's been way grumpier than usual," Andre revealed. "Has been ever since Yugo said something to him after the duel with Goodwin. I don't know what the hell it was, but it seems to have cranked his antisocial personality to eleven."

Crow let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. I'll go see what's bugging him before I do anything else."

* * *

Jack was standing atop one of the buildings surrounding the pyramid with a scowl on his face. Jack had been in an angry mood ever since Yugo had told him about something that he had learned about during his duel with Rex. Ever since then, Jack had wanted to snap Goodwin's neck, even though doing so would be pointless.

"Still playing the role of solitary king like always, huh?" a familiar voice spoke. Jack looked back and saw Crow standing a few feet away. "The guys told me that something's been eating at you ever since we took down Goodwin."

"What does it matter to you?" Jack asked.

"Well believe it or not, I am sort of your friend, you jerk," Crow told him. "I came to see if there was anything I could to help."

"You should learn to mind your own business," Jack told him. "But… you have more of a right to know than anyone else. Yugo learned about what happened to Yusei during his duel with Goodwin."

"You mean… Goodwin had something to do with why Yusei disappeared?" Crow asked, his eyed widening in surprise.

Jack turned around to look him in the eye. "According to Yugo, Yusei somehow found out about Goodwin's plans for the city and went to challenge him the night before our match. But before Yusei could make a move, Goodwin banished him into a dimensional rift or something."

"So… is there a way to get him back?" Crow asked.

"From what Yugo told me, Yusei is lost forever," Jack answered. "Which means I'll never get a chance to settle things with him!"

"I don't believe this," Crow spoke. "How… how did Yusei even know about what Goodwin was up to? Hell! How did he even get out to face the bastard? You and I both know that Friendship Cup contestants weren't allowed out of their hotel rooms during the competition!"

"I have no idea… but I think our new friends, Bruno and Sherry have something to do with it," Jack answered. "I don't know how, but I think they were somehow involved."

"Are you saying that they're hiding things from us?" Crow asked.

"I'm certain of it," Jack answered as he stormed towards the door on the roof. "But in the end, I suppose it doesn't matter. Knowing how those two were involved won't change the fact that Yusei's not coming back."

Once Jack went through to the door, Crow went over to the roof's edge. This time it was his turn to look out over the city with a scowl.

"DAMMIT!" Crow cursed at the top of his lungs as he kicked the ledge surrounding the roof.

Just like Jack, Crow suddenly found himself wishing that he could break Rex's neck. He wondered if Ushio and the others would have a problem with him mangling the corpse.

* * *

Yugo was sitting by Rin's bedside in the room that Goodwin had given her in the pyramid. Both Bruno and Yugo had agreed to have Rin rest in that room as a matter of convenience until they could figure out a better location. Ever since Rex's defeat, Rin had not woken up once. Yugo was starting to become extremely worried that Rin might never wake up; that whatever happened in that duel had broken something in her brain. The young turbo duelist felt more powerless than he had ever been.

Just as Yugo was about to get up and pace the room to stretch his legs, Rin began to stir. In moments she was thrashing on the bed as though she were in the grips of some terrible nightmare. Yugo took her hand, and suddenly Rin's eyes snapped up and she sat up on the bed like the poll of a stepped-on rake.

"Rin. You okay?" Yugo asked.

Rin looked at Yugo and pulled him into a hug as tears came to the corners of her eyes. "Thank goodness you're okay! I thought that wreck you had when you got hit killed you."

"Hey… you know I'm made of some pretty hard stuff," Yugo told her with a small smile. "Right now, I'm way more worried about you. Um… do you remember what you did at the end of the duel?"

At this, Rin pulled away and tried to recall what happened after Yugo had crashed. She recalled herself using some strange summoning method and attacking Rex relentlessly, but much of it was a blur. It was like trying to remember a dream.

"I… I'm not sure… what got into me…" Rin answered. "What the hell happened to me?"

"I honestly have no clue," Yugo answered. "It was like you were possessed or something."

"You let the power of your Anunnaki blood get out of control," a familiar voice spoke. The two looked and saw Sherry standing in the doorway with Bruno.

"Hey! You guys know something about this, don't you?" Yugo realized as he stood up from his chair to face them.

"Afraid so," Sherry admitted. "We probably should've told you both the whole story sooner, but we were under orders not to."

"Well I want to know everything now!" Rin told them as she got up from the bed. "I'm sure Yugo does to."

"That's why we're here," Bruno responded. "Sherry and I were just sent to come get you. Rudger Goodwin would like to speak with both of you as soon as possible."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So, I bet a lot of you reading were fairly surprised by the monster that Rin used to finish Goodwin off. Zero Bell of course is a "Dark" Synchro Monster like the ones that showed up during the Dark Signers arc of the 5D's anime. It's kind of a shame that Konami didn't make that type of monster card a reality. There had been plans for them to do so, but I guess they either decided that introducing a second type of Extra Deck monster during the same generation was too much, or they thought that two many kids would have trouble figuring out negative numbers. Anyway, I decided that a "Dark" Synchro Monster would be something fun and unexpected to work into a Synchro Dimension story, and from there I came up with the idea of Rin going berserk and summoning Zero Bell.

So if you all thought that Rex Goodwin's defeat meant that the story would be over, think again ladies and gentlemen! We've still got a little ways to go here. There's one more final villain lurking over the horizon.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	37. The Shocking Truth, Part 1

**Author's Note:** I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. I was really hoping that Rin's Dark Synchro Monster would be a twist that would get a lot of response, so I'm totally thrilled to see I was right.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 37: The Shocking Truth, Part 1

Yugo and Rin were not the only ones who Bruno and Sherry came and got for the meeting with the mysterious Rudger Goodwin. The pair had also requested that Crow, Jack, Carly, Aki, Shinji, Matsuri, Anastasia, Ruka, Rua and Hitomi be in on the meeting as well. Once everyone had agreed to hear what Sherry and Bruno's employer had to say, the duo took them out on a drive through the city. Within minutes they had wound up in a part of what used to be the Commons that Yugo somehow found familiar, even after Iliaster's mechanical transformation of the former slum. Before long, the young turbo duelist saw that they were heading for a building that he recognized almost immediately.

"Hey! That's the place where those jerks from security had me in stasis!" Yugo identified.

"Actually, the security force had nothing to do with your placement in stasis," Bruno revealed as they came ever closer to the building. "The night that you had your confrontation with security, Sherry and I retrieved you and placed you here under Rudger Goodwin's orders."

"Say what?" Yugo exclaimed.

"At the time, it was the only way to keep you out of Iliaster's clutches," Sherry told him. "Now come on. Our boss will explain everything."

The garage to the building opened up as soon as the ground came near, and closed behind them as soon as everyone was inside. Once Yugo and others dismounted, Bruno went over to the far wall of the garage that Yugo never noticed during his first visit. As soon as the switch was flipped, a heavy door hidden in the wall opened up to reveal a staircase leading to a much lower level of the building. The others followed Bruno and Sherry down the stairs, and moments later they found themselves inside a massive cylindrical chamber with polished black walls that had lines of green light running along them in places, and a black floor that one could see his or her reflection in. In the very center of the chamber was a very large silver and grey computer with a massive screen on the front.

"So, where the heck is this boss of yours?" Crow asked Bruno and Sherry as he looked around the room.

As if on cue, the screen of the computer switched on to show the face of an older man with tanned skin and long spiked dark-blonde hair. Yugo and the others immediately noticed he bore a strong resemblance to the deceased Rex Goodwin.

 _"Good evening, everyone,"_ the man on the screen spoke. _"I want to thank you all for coming here. My name Rudger Goodwin."_

"Just what sort of game our you playing at here?" Jack demanded to know. "You Goodwins are all alike! If you have something to say to all of us, say it in person!"

 _"But I am speaking to you in person, Mr. Atlas,"_ Rudger told him. _"Or rather… what's left of me is."_

Suddenly a circular hole in the floor opened up in front of the computer. Rising out of it was a metal cylinder with a glass tank at the top, showing a human brain. The tank of liquid that the brain was in was lit by a green light at the container's top, and the brain itself is was hooked up to several wires. Yugo and many of the others were visibly stunned. Rua though reacted as though it were the coolest thing he had every seen.

 _"I suffer from the same condition that my brother suffered from, though my case was obviously more severe,"_ Rudger continued. _"My body had become useless to me, so the only way I could continue my work was to place my brain in this machine. Of course even now, I do not have much time left."_

"Wow! This is… this is just all kinds of freaky," Crow declared.

"I'll say," Matsuri agreed.

"Hold on just a sec!" Rua spoke as he suddenly eyed the brain suspiciously. "How do we know that what we're seeing is actually your brain? For all we know, you really are trying to trick us somehow."

"Rua's right!" Yugo agreed. "You could be trying to pull something over on us."

Ruka rolled her eyes. "Rua, do you even hear yourself right now?"

"Yeah Yugo. What would be the point of a trick like that?" Rin pointed out.

"Well… okay, yeah. That does seem kinda stupid," Yugo admitted.

Rudger chuckled a bit as the tank containing his brain lowered back into the floor. _"I do not blame you for your suspicions after what you've been through with Rex. As his older brother, I must apologize for all the things he's done, though I know that no apology can ever make up for his misdeeds. Rex always had the best of intentions for this world, but he was also very misguided."_

"We didn't come here to hear you defend that monster to us!" Shinji interrupted.

 _"No, you didn't. You came here for answers, and that's what you'll get,"_ Rudger responded. _"I will tell you all about why my brother formed Iliaster and what led us to this point. It all began years ago with the discovery of a lost city in South America."_

Some of the color drained from Rin's face when she heard Rudger talk about a lost city in South America. Rex had already told her a little something about those ruins. Yugo noticed Rin's reaction and took her hand.

 _"The ruins were identified by the archeologists who made the discovery as Seibal, the City of the Gods,"_ Rudger continued. _"Legends said that the city itself had come down from the heavens, and it was from here where gods once ruled this world. As the archeologists examined the ruins, they discovered a vast network of tunnels beneath its foundation that contained some startling secrets. There in those ruins of a city thousands of years old were pieces of technology far beyond anything that humans of that era could've constructed. They also discovered what could only be described at the time as power generators build into the city's foundation._

 _"As soon as news of the discovery spread, it was decided that a team of some of the world's top scientific minds were sent to investigate it. I was part of the team leading the expedition, along with Rex, Leo Akaba, and my friend, Dr. Fudo, the inventor of the Momentum Reactor and the father of your lost friend, Yusei Fudo. Dr. Fudo and I had the task of examining the power reactors, while Rex and Professor Akaba were to help examine the rest of the city's ancient technology. As soon as we arrived at the ruins, we all noticed that Leo had started to act strange. When we asked him if he was okay, he said he felt as if he had come home._

 _"In the beginning, Leo's feeling of belonging to those ruins all seemed totally innocent. No one could've predicted how his attachments to the city were going to affect him. In order for you all to understand the events of what happened next, it would probably be best to show you some of what happened next rather than simply tell you. What you're about to see takes place inside the main tent of our basecamp just five days after we had arrived."_

Suddenly the inside of the chamber began to transform, and the machine showing Rudger's face vanished. In moments, Yugo and the others were standing inside a large brown canvas tent. All around the edge of the tent were long tables with pieces of lab equipment and strange artifacts scattered all over them. A young Rex Goodwin was standing in front of one of the tables examining what appeared to be a small and ancient piece of machinery. Back then, the future despot's hair was black and slightly shorter, and he had on a white lab coat.

There was also another man standing in front of one of the tables. He had tanned skin, purple eyes and short dark hair. Like Rex, he also had on a white lab coat, as well as blue shirt with a red tie and black slacks. Rin recognized the other man as her father, Leo Akaba. Rudger Goodwin was also inside the tent looking at something on a computer screen.

"No matter how many times I look at these artifacts, I'm simply amazed!" Rex declared with a large smile. "Leo! Do you realize what this fine means?"

"I believe I do, my friend," Leo responded. "The legends of this city coming from the heavens themselves… may not be a legend after all."

"Exactly!" Rex agreed as he turned to face him. "For ages there have been theories that ancient aliens came to visit Earth, and now we have irrefutable proof!"

"So the gods were nothing more than little green men," Rudger remarked with a smirk as he swiveled his chair to face them. "I kinda feel sorry for the ancient people who worshipped these guys. They totally got taken for fools."

"Really brother, why do you always have to see the dark side of things?" Rex asked as he sighed and shook his head.

"Oh come on Rex! If you think about it, it's not like these aliens did much to show those ancient people that they weren't gods," Rudger pointed out. "Instead they just let them bow down and do whatever they felt like telling them to."

"If these beings did allow the ancient population around here worship them as gods, perhaps it was because they just had the best interest of those people at heart," Leo remarked, causing Rudger to raise an eyebrow.

Just then, another man in a lab coat walked into the tent. This man had purple eyes and spiked black hair that seemed somehow shaped like a crab. Yugo, Rin, Jack and Crow instantly noticed that family resemblance this man had to Yusei.

"Rudger, did you get the data I sent you?" Dr. Fudo asked.

"I was just looking it over now," Rudger answered, pointing his hand at the screen of his computer. "From what you've just sent me, I think these ancient power reactors might be engines of some kind."

"That's just what I was thinking as well," Dr. Fudo agreed. "I don't know how, but I think there's some kind of advanced vehicle underneath this city."

"Or perhaps this whole city is a vehicle itself," Leo theorized. "Fudo, do you think you could reactivate those engines?"

"Well… I suppose it might be possible," a surprised Dr. Fudo answered. "Of course I'd have to figure out how they worked before I could find out one way or the other. Why do you ask?"

"Oh… just curious, I suppose," Leo answered.

Suddenly a young woman with long dark-green hair and wearing a long with lab coat and half moon spectacles rushed into the tent past Dr. Fudo. In her hands she carried something balled up into a white cloth.

"Professor Akaba! Dr. Goodwin!" the young woman spoke as she rushed up to Leo and Rex. "One of the other teams found this inside the city's main building."

She unwrapped what was in the cloth, revealing the item to be an all-too-familiar silver bracelet with a green gemstone. Rin looked at her own wrist to confirm what she was seeing was true. There was no doubt that the bracelet that the young woman had was Rin's.

"They thought it might be another piece of alien technology and asked me to have you look at it," the young woman continued.

Rex carefully took the bracelet from her and looked it over. "Hmm… well, it is an interesting find… but I don't think it's technological. You should have one of the archeology teams look it over."

"One moment, Rex," Leo spoke as he came over and took the bracelet to have a closer look. "We shouldn't be too hasty. For all we know, this bracelet could have a type of technology we've never seen before hidden within it. We'll take a closer look at it."

The young woman nodded and hurried out of the tent. Leo meanwhile continued to look over the bracelet carefully.

"Leo, do you really think that this bracelet is actually an advanced alien relic?" Rex asked.

"Actually, I'm not sure," Leo answered. "I do get sort of an odd feeling from it though. But actually, I held onto the bracelet for a totally different reason. I think it might make a good gift for my daughter. It seems like it would suit her somehow. Rex, I'm wondering if you would do me a favor and make arrangements to have this thing sent back secretly?"

Rex chuckled and took the bracelet from Leo. "Consider it done."

"Hmm… if Akaba is sending something from here home as a gift for his daughter, maybe I should find something here that my son might like," Dr. Fudo remarked.

"Don't even think about it," Rudger told him. "Leo, sending that bracelet home seems like a bad idea. You could get into some real trouble."

"I don't think any real harm will come of it," Leo responded. "Besides, I don't know why, but I feel like my daughter is the rightful owner of that bracelet."

Suddenly the four scientists vanished and the inside of the tent returned to its original form. The machine that Rudger was using to talk to Yugo and the others also reappeared.

 _"As they days went on, Leo's strange attitude about Seibal persisted,"_ Rudger continued. _"My brother was unconcerned, but Fudo and I were increasingly troubled by Leo's attitude that the city was somehow his ancestral home. It also concerned the two of us how Leo seemed to think it was right for these ancient aliens to let the ancient humans of that area worship them as gods. That concern peaked during a lunch conversation that the four of us had a few days later."_

Once again, the chamber began to transform and the machine showing Rudger's face vanished. This time the audience was inside what appeared to be a mess tent filled with scientists and archeologists having lunch. Rudger and Dr. Fudo were sitting across from one another at the end of the table that Yugo and the others had ended up near. Both of the scientists had troubled expressions on their faces.

"Is it just me Rudger, or is Akaba starting to go off the deep end?" Dr. Fudo asked.

Rudger let out a heavy sigh. "No… this place definitely seems to be having an effect on Leo's mind."

"The other day, I heard him and Rex talking about how these aliens were worshipped as gods," Dr. Fudo revealed. "They both seemed to think that these gods were acting out of some kind of greater good, like the human race needed their guidance or something like that in order to survive."

"Are you serious?" Rudger asked before shaking his head. "Oh boy… Leo is one thing, but my brother?"

"You two seem to be having a very interesting conversation," a familiar voice spoke. Rudger looked and saw Rex and Leo standing next to him. "Mind if we join you?"

"Uh… not at all," Dr. Fudo answered as he pasted on a fake smile. "Please sit down."

Rex and Leo sat down on the bench next to Rudger. There was an awkward silence that hung over the four for a moment.

"Leo and I overheard some of your conversation," Rex calmly revealed. "Are you really that troubled by our earlier discussion?"

"Well… to be honest you two, yes," Rudger admitted. "Leo, it sounds like you wish these ancient aliens were still around making us bow down to them."

"From what little we've seen so far, these beings came here to guide the human race," Leo argued. "And from what I've seen of the world, humanity is in desperate need of guidance. The fact is we're nothing more than a race of irresponsible self-destructive children! And children need a firm hand. I'm confident that if these fallen gods were still here today, the world would be a much better place."

"You're saying that we'd all be better off if we were slaves to some alien beings?" Dr. Fudo asked.

"Why do you think that would mean slavery?" Leo calmly asked. "It seems like the ancient humans from the time of Seibal worshipped these beings willingly."

"And what about those few ancient humans who maybe didn't agree with the commandments that these aliens gave them?" Dr. Fudo asked with a hint of outrage in his voice. "What do you think these 'benevolent gods' of yours did to them?"

"Sometimes children need to be punished," Leo calmly replied with a shrug. "You're a father, Fudo. You should know that better than anyone."

"You and my brother both seem to be selling the human race pretty short," Rudger declared.

"I don't think so at all," Rex told him. "The fact is that humans have a natural and destructive inclination towards competition, the need to dominate and conquer all others. Our society in Neo Domino is proof of that fact."

"I admit that things back in the city are bad, but I don't think we can call that proof that human beings are incapable of being master of their own destiny," Dr. Fudo told them.

"That's exactly what it means!" Leo declared. "The human race needs to be guided by a higher power if it has any hope of surviving. You and Rudger are too naïve think otherwise."

With that, Leo took his lunch tray and got up to leave for another table. Rex got up and followed him a few short seconds later. Soon after Rex and Leo left, the mess tent vanished and Yugo and the others were back inside the chamber with the machine housing Rudger's brain.

 _"The four of us really began to drift apart after that conversation,"_ Rudger continued. _"In the weeks and months that followed, more and more of the chambers underneath Seibal were mapped out and examined. One of those chambers was some sort of library, and through examining that library's contents the archeological team was somehow able to translate the written language of the city's inhabitants. That breakthrough not only allowed us all to eventually uncover this history of Seibal and its supposedly divine inhabitants, it also allowed Dr. Fudo to figure out the controls for the engines underneath the city. Meanwhile, Leo Akaba's strange behavior regarding the city continued to grow worse._

 _"Then one day, the archeological teams discovered a hidden chamber containing the mummified remains of some of the city's inhabitants. Careful autopsies were immediately performed on the mummies, and it was discovered that while these beings seemed physically similar to humans, there were enough anatomical differences to confirm that they were not human at all. After that discovery, there was no longer a doubt in anyone's mind that Seibal was a city build by people from beyond the stars."_

"So… you guys really found some lost alien city?" Matsuri asked.

 _"Indeed we did. And we eventually discovered the name of this bygone race,"_ Rudger revealed. _"They were known as the Anunnaki."_

"Okay! Time out!" Crow interrupted. "You had me going there for a while, but I'm calling crap on this whole thing. That psycho running the Arcadia Movement also gave us that exact same story about these Anunnaki too. Your credibility just took a nosedive, and it wasn't all that high to begin with."

 _"I understand your skepticism, Mr. Hogan. But Divine was telling you the truth about the Anunnaki, as far as he knew it,"_ Rudger told him. _"But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Before we get too far into the topic of the Anunnaki, I must first tell you what happened with our expedition. Rex was helping with the examination of the DNA of these mummies to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were from another world. I was present on the day he was examining a sample from a mummy that seemed to be a very important figure in the Anunnaki's society from the elaborate sarcophagus he had."_

Once again the inside of the chamber began to change and the machine showing Rudger's face vanished. The audience was now inside another much smaller tent. Rex was sitting at a table with an advanced microscope connected to a computer. Rudger entered the tent as Rex was scribbling down something on a tablet of paper.

"Something I can help you with, brother?" Rex asked, not once taking his eyes from his work.

"I just came in here looking for this pen I might've lost," Rudger answered. "So… those mummies really from another planet?"

"The DNA clearly does not match any known life form of this planet," Rex confirmed. "The interesting thing though is that it is compatible with human DNA."

"You saying that a human and one of these aliens could've had a kid together if they wanted to?" Rudger asked.

"It's very possible," Rex answered. "Humans do seem to be physically compatible with the Anunnaki. A hybrid of those two life forms does not seem out of the question."

At that moment, Leo entered the tent. "Rex. How goes your examination of the DNA?"

"It's coming along fine," Rex answered, swiveling his chair around to face Leo. "We can easily prove to the world that these people came from another planet."

"Splendid," Leo replied, looking past Rex to his microscope. "Say… would it be possible for you to examine the DNA of another life form and see if it has any common genetic traits with those of the Anunnaki?"

"Well… bare in mind, my expertise in genetics is a little bit limited, but it should be possible," Rex answered.

"Good. Then I want you to examine this blood sample and see if the DNA has any traits in common with the Anunnaki," Leo requested as he handed Rex a plastic sample container. "I'd like to know what the results are as soon as possible."

"Of course," Rex replied as Leo turned and headed for the door. "If you don't mind me asking though, whose blood am I running this test on?"

Leo stopped at the doorway and looked back at Rex. "My own."

As soon as the image of Leo walked out, the tent returned to its original form. Yugo and the others were once again standing before the machine showing an image of Rudger's face.

 _"Rex did as my brother asked, and after he triple checked his findings, he confirmed that Leo was indeed descended from the Anunnaki,"_ Rudger revealed. _"In fact, Rex was able to determine that Leo was descended from the very Anunnaki king who's DNA he had been examining at the time Leo made his request."_

Rin suddenly staggered back a couple steps as a look of horror formed on her face. "No… it can't be true!"

 _"I'm sorry, my dear. I asked that Sherry and Bruno not tell you about the truth of your ancestry because I knew this is how you might react,"_ Rudger told her. _"Though perhaps I should've let them tell you about this sooner. It may have prevented what finally happened during your duel with my brother."_

"If it makes you feel better Rin, you're not the only one here with alien ancestors," Sherry spoke. "I too am also descended from Anunnaki royalty. That's how I'm able to Pendulum Summon, and how I sensed you summon that Dark Synchro Monster. You and I are very distant cousins."

 _"Ms. Izayoi, Ms. Winthrop and Ms. Stirba are also of Anunnaki descent, though their ancestors were commoners among the Anunnaki,"_ Rudger revealed. _"The same was true for Divine. In fact almost every psychic duelist has some Anunnaki present in their lineage."_

"I'm still not buying any of this," Crow declared.

"You should," Aki told him. "Truthfully, I only half believed what Divine always told us about the Anunnaki. But after hearing everything that Rudger Goodwin has told us, I'm absolutely convinced that all of it is true. And… I'm sure that both Rin and Yugo are convinced too."

"Give us the rest of the story, you talking brain," Jack ordered.

 _"Once my brother told Leo about his alien heritage, everything got worse and worse,"_ Rudger continued. _"Leo became convinced that it was his duty and obligation to revive Seibal and rule the Earth with the intention of guiding the human race along what he believed to be the proper path. He felt that he was a superior being to the rest of us. Rex eagerly went along with Leo's plan, as he truly believed that humanity needed to be guided by what he called a higher power in order to survive. Eventually Fudo and I had figured out what the two of them had been planning, but by the time we figured out a plan to stop them, it was all too late."_

The chamber once again changed to the inside of the main tent that Yugo and the others had seen at the start of Rudger's tale. Rudger was standing in the middle of the tent looking over something on a clipboard when Dr. Fudo rushed in.

"Rudger, we have a major problem!" Dr. Fudo declared. "A few minutes ago, your brother had my team power up the engines underneath this place. After that, Leo ordered all the other teams to leave. Seibal is coming back online! Pretty soon it'll be airborne."

"So… it's as we feared. Leo and my brother really are going to try and conquer the Earth," Rudger spoke. "We have to stop them somehow! Is there any way for us to sabotage those engines?"

"Causing them to blow up probably wouldn't be a good idea," Dr. Fudo answered. "The explosion would be so great that this planet would look like an apple with a giant bite taken out of it. Millions of lives could be lost!"

"Is there any other way to stop them?" Rudger asked.

"There is one possibility I can think of. From what I can figure out, this alien fortress can move into other dimensions," Dr. Fudo revealed. "If I can get to the controls in the engine room, I think I can sabotage things so that Seibal shifts into a dimensional void. I think I can also program it so that the engines crash once the dimensional jump has been made. It'd be virtually impossible to power them up again without the aide of some kind of outside power source."

"Okay, one problem. Wouldn't we be trapped in this other dimension along with Seibal?" Rudger pointed out.

"Already thought of that," Dr. Fudo told him. "There's also a teleportation device in the engine room. Rex has been using it to move a lot of the alien technology out of Seibal to another location during the past few weeks, along with some of those stone tablets we discovered in one of the lower chambers. Anyway, I should be able to program the system to make the dimensional jump and crash the engines after a delay of two or three minutes. Then we just use the teleporter to get off Seibal before it vanishes."

Suddenly the whole tent began to shake. Pieces of lab equipment fell of the tables, falling to pieces as they crashed to the ground. It was almost as if the earth was going to tear itself apart. After a few minutes though, the shaking stopped and the two scientists got the sensation that they were somehow rising into the air."

"Looks like Seibal has been launched," Rudger realized. "If we're going to try your idea, we better do it now!"

Soon after Rudger and Dr. Fudo rushed out of the tent, the surroundings changed again and Yugo and the others were suddenly inside a massive chamber containing at least four very large cylindrical devices made of glowing orange coils secured inside dark-grey metal support frames. Yugo and the rest of the gang assumed that these devices were Seibal's engines. There was also a small control center inside the large room right by the door. The small door of the engine room slid open, and Rudger and Dr. Fudo rushed through it.

"Okay. Hopefully this won't take long to set up," Dr. Fudo spoke as he headed for the controls.

"That's far enough, Fudo!" a familiar voice spoke. The duo looked and saw Rex emerge from around one of the engines with a gun in his hands. "You too, brother. I don't know exactly what you're planning, but I'm not going to allow it to happen."

"Rex! This whole thing is madness!" Rudger told him. "You and Leo need to stop this now!"

"What Leo and I are doing is for the good of all humanity," Rex insisted as he approached them, keeping his gun aimed at Dr. Fudo. "First we shall use the power of this fortress to do away with the corrupt society of Neo Domino! Then we shall change the rest of the world!"

"And you think that people will just roll over and let you and Akaba conquer them?" Dr. Fudo asked.

"We do expect some resistance at first, but that resistance can easily be broken," Rex declared. "This is the new age of the Anunnaki! You and the rest of the world will have to get used to that."

"No way! Not while I have anything to say about it!" Dr. Fudo told him. "I'm going to stop your twisted plan right now!"

Dr. Fudo continued towards the controls. Rex ordered him to stop, but his former colleague would not listen. Once Dr. Fudo got behind the main control panel, Rex opened fire and shot him in the chest. Dr. Fudo started to cough up blood and had to grab onto the controls for support.

"Rudger! Keep… keep him busy." Dr. Fudo spoke. "Just… give me some time!"

"Don't make me shoot you too, Rudger," Rex warned as he pointed the gun at him. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes!"

"Damn you!" Rudger cursed as he suddenly rushed towards Rex.

Before Rex could fire off another shot, Rudger managed to grab his wrist and tried to wrestle the gun out of his hand. Rex attempted to punch him in the side, but his older and larger brother managed to grab his other wrist. As the two brothers grappled, Dr. Fudo used what remaining strength he had to work the controls of the engine room. Rudger and Rex continued to struggle, twirling around the room as if locked in some sort of strange dance. Then eventually, Rex ended up pushing Rudger into one of the engines, causing the elder Goodwin to be electrocuted by the strange power coursing through it. A bolt of that same energy also struck Rex in the shoulder.

Soon after this happened, some sort of alert siren began to go off inside the room. After recovering from the shock, Rex looked over at the controls and saw that Dr. Fudo had a bloody but triumphant smile on his face before collapsing behind the control panel. Scowling, Rex dashed to a large yellow hexagonal panel in the floor a few feet from the controls. He pressed a few keys on a small control panel on the wall behind the hexagonal pad, and within seconds he disappeared from the room with a flash of yellow light. A few seconds after Rex vanished, Rudger got back to his feet.

Rudger staggered over to the controls and saw Dr. Fudo sitting against the wall, holding a hand over his now extremely bloody wound. The engineer was still conscious, but Rudger realized that his wound was a fatal one.

"Fudo! We have to get out of here!" Rudger told him.

"You… you go," Dr. Fudo responded. "I'm… not gonna make it. You and I both know that."

"You really expect me to just leave you here?" Rudger asked.

Dr. Fudo coughed a bit before shaking his head. "It's… it's too late for me. Just go. If you don't… there won't be anyone left… to stop Rex."

After a moment, Rudger got onto the hexagonal pad and pressed the keys on the control panel behind it. A few seconds later, there was a brilliant flash of light that seemed to fill the room. When the light faded, Yugo and the others were outside standing beside a giant crater. Rudger was standing a few feet away, shading his eyes from the sun as he looked up into the sky.

"Brother!" a voice called, and Rudger saw Rex standing several feet away. "How could you do this? Leo and I were going to change this corrupt world! That fortress was the key to humanity's salvation!"

"No Rex! I understand why you did all this… but what you and Leo almost did wasn't the way to change this world!" Rudger told him. "You can't force piece and harmony on others!"

"This is not over!" Rex declared. "I will find a way to bring back Seibal! Just you wait! And you had better not get in my way again!"

Rudger merely stood and watched as Rex walked away. Suddenly the surroundings changed again and Yugo and the others were once again in the chamber with the computer containing Rudger's brain.

 _"I'm sure many of you have already pieced together most of what happened next,"_ Rudger continued. _"Rex had salvaged a lot of technology from Seibal, and he was able to use it to establish the foundation for Iliaster and build the fortress he used to send power to Seibal's engines in the hopes of brining Leo Akaba back to this world. Meanwhile I began my work to stop my brother's ambitions. I reached out to Sherry's father, who happened to be an old friend of mine. He had access to certain technological resources that I thought might aid in the battle against Iliaster._

 _"Unfortunately, my health proved to be a major obstacle in my efforts. The power surge from Seibal's engine that Rex and I took exposed us both to a strange and unidentified radiation that was slowly causing our organs to fail. The reason I'm in the state you see me in now is because I took most of the blast. I needed helpers to assist me, so I recruited Sherry and Bruno. Sherry agreed to help me after she and I discovered her Annunaki roots. Bruno was a young mechanical prodigy that I discovered some years later."_

"Originally I was a young engineering student who worked on a team that was part of Neo Domino Security's research and development division," Bruno revealed. "In fact, I assisted with the development of the security droids used by Iliaster. When I eventually found out what Rex Goodwin had planned, I decided to escape and reached out to Rudger Goodwin so that I could put a stop to it."

"What about Yusei?" Jack asked. "I know you had something to do with why your brother got rid of him."

 _"…Yes. I had Bruno and Sherry recruit Yusei Fudo to help me,"_ Rudger admitted. _"I thought he might be strong enough to defeat my brother, and that he would make it possible for me to avoid using Yugo and Rin in this whole business. When I told Yusei that my brother was responsible for his father's death, he became more than willing to stop Rex's plans. I never expected Rex to use such an underhanded tactic against Yusei though. But in hindsight… perhaps I should have."_

"Well, I guess that's the whole messy story then," Crow assumed.

"Like hell it is!" Yugo exclaimed. "I wanna know why Rin and I had to get wrapped up in all this!"

"So do I!" Rin agreed. "And… I want to know more about the Anunnaki too."

 _"And so I shall tell you,"_ Rudger responded. _"You deserve to know the full story about all this. I shall tell you all I know about the Anunnaki, and about the barbarian king who slew them."_

"Barbarian king?" Jack repeated with a raised eyebrow.

 _"Yes. The original master of Yugo's Clear Wing Synchro Dragon,"_ Rudger revealed. _"The legendary Signer known as… Zarc."_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I've always found Rudger Goodwin to be an interesting character. While his brother, Rex was an evil guy who cloaked himself in a mask of good and even acted with what he thought were the best of intentions, Rudger was a good man who was forced to do evil things by outside forces. In the 5D's anime, he was compelled to do evil because he had been chosen as a Dark Signer, and in the manga he had no choice to become the Skeleton Knight and use Yusei's friend, Sect as a pawn to stop Rex from unleashing an evil god upon the world. So in this story, I guess I wanted to try and show what a good guy Rudger actually was, even though some of his actions in this story might be considered a little evil. Incidentally, the idea to have Rudger as a brain in a jar in this story came to me while watching _Captain America: Winter Soldier._

We've still got another chapter of revelations to go, so stay tuned.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	38. The Shocking Truth, Part 2

**Author's Note:** This chapter wound up being much shorter than I thought it was going to be. I kind of feel like I need to apologize in advance because I feel like what follows will be a bit of a letdown after the events of the previous chapters. But I'll let you all read and be the judge.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 38: The Shocking Truth, Part 2

 _"Before I tell you all about Zarc, I should probably start by telling you more about the Anunnaki,"_ Rudger began. _"While similar to humans in some ways, the Anunnaki were an extremely advanced and intelligent race. Their technology was far beyond anything that the human race has developed. Even today there is no piece of machinery that humanity has developed that comes remotely close to what these beings had. The Anunnaki also possessed certain psychic and mystical powers, making them perhaps the most evolved race of beings in this solar system._

 _"On day though, the Anunnaki saw that their home planet, Nibiru was on the verge of death. The planet's atmosphere was deteriorating, and its core was becoming unstable. The archives in Seibal revealed that these disasters were because of repeated and unwise tapping of the planet's core for energy. The damage to their atmosphere was due to a strange kind of pollution being generated by various factories on the planet. Eventually, the Anunnaki decided that the only way for them to survive was to flee their world and come here to Earth._

 _"The Anunnaki chose this world because it was the only other planet in the solar system that could support life. When they eventually discovered the existence of the human race, they saw our kind as nothing more than primitive beasts. Out of the same sort of arrogance that consumed Leo and my brother, the Anunnaki decided that it was their obligation to guide the development of the human race, so they allowed the humans living in the area where Seibal eventually landed to believe that they were gods."_

"So did the Anunnaki treat their worshippers as nothing more than slaves, as Dr. Fudo thought?" Anastasia asked.

 _"To an extent, yes,"_ Rudger confirmed. _"To be more accurate though, the Anunnaki viewed humans in the same way that the gods of myth treated humans as nothing more than insects. Of course for the most part, there was harmony in the society that arose from this relationship between humans and the Anunnaki. The humans willingly and eagerly followed the commandments given them to their new gods, and in turn their society did advance a bit as a result. But there was still exploitation._

 _"The Anunnaki used many of their human followers as slave labor, and even as servants in their homes in Seibal. Also at certain times of the year, the human worshippers would offer their young maidens as brides to their gods, something that was considered to be a great honor. It is these virgin offerings that eventually resulted in the existence of Rin, Sherry, and those of you here who possess psychic talents."_

"I'm really starting to hate these guys," Shinji remarked.

 _"I should also mention that the Anunnaki used their human followers for entertainment as well,"_ Rudger continued. _"There were those among those ancient humans who could call upon and command the spirits we now know today as Duel Monsters. The Anunnaki selected humans to fight as gladiators and hold battles using these creatures to put on spectacular shows. In time though, the Anunnaki learned how to call upon and command these Duel Monster spirits as well. The members of the Annunaki royal clans even figured out how to use their mystical powers to create a new type of summoning technique, a method we know today as Pendulum Summoning."_

"How… how long did all of this go on for?" Rin asked.

 _"For about five hundred years,"_ Rudger answered. _"Then one day, a powerful young man stepped forward and challenged the authority of the Anunnaki."_

"Zarc," Yugo realized. "Just who was this guy anyway?"

 _"He was a foreigner born with the full seal of the Crimson Dragon on his back,"_ Rudger answered. _"The mark branded him as a Legendary Signer, a warrior who served a powerful supernatural entity known as the Crimson Dragon. As a result, Zarc was gifted with incredible powers that were on par with the mystical abilities of the Anunnaki. Zarc couldn't just command Duel Monster spirits; he could also communicate with them. He was perhaps the greatest warrior of his time._

 _"When Zarc finally encountered the Anunnaki, he decided that he would not bow down to them. The Crimson Dragon seemed to oppose the Anunnaki as well. There were those humans in the society created by the Anunnaki who had grown tired of living under the thumb of their gods. From these people, Zarc formed an army to rebel and conquer the Anunnaki. To help him, Zarc called upon the power of the Crimson Dragon to help him harmonize the energy of two monsters together and create a new type of creature._

 _"The result of this was the birth of Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, the first Synchro Monster ever to exist. Others in Zarc's army capable of commanding Duel Monster spirits followed their leader's example, giving rise to dragons very much like Clear Wing, the Crimson Dragon's son."_

"Wait a minute. Are you talking about dragons like my Black Rose?" Aki asked.

 _"I am indeed,"_ Rudger confirmed. _"Dragons such as Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend, Black Rose Extinction Dragon, Phoenix Black-Winged Dragon, Ancient Fairy Genesis Dragon, and Burning Life Stream Dragon are all part of them same breed of monster as Clear Wing. They are all Apex Synchro Monsters."_

"That explains why all of our dragons would seem to call out to Clear Wing," Ruka realized. "To call out to each other."

 _"Precisely,"_ Rudger confirmed. _"With these Synchro Monsters at their command, Zarc and his army became a devastating force to the Anunnaki. To counter Zarc's army, the Anunnaki created the Meklords as weapons. They also eventually tapped into darker and forbidden mystical energies to bring forth Dark Synchro Monsters similar to the one Rin used to defeat my brother. It may comfort you to know, Rin that you did not tap into the full extant of that dark power. Had your monster's level been below zero, things might've turned out much worse than they did."_

"You mean… I might not have been able to bring Rin back to normal?" Yugo asked.

"It would've been unlikely, yes," Bruno confirmed. "In a way, it was good that Rin summoned her Dark Synchro Monster, because now we should be able to keep her from summoning it again."

"You mean… I could summon that monster again?" Rin asked. "Or maybe something even worse?"

"Only if you let that dark power consume you," Sherry answered.

"The reason you summoned Windwitch – Zero Bell because you let your rage and apparent sorrow over Yugo's death consume you," Bruno told her. "In the end though, you're ultimately the one who choses whether or not to use the dark power inherited from your alien ancestors. By maintaining a clear mind, you can keep those violent emotions in check and move beyond the need to use that dark power."

"So I'm guessing that Zarc and his army eventually defeated the Anunnaki," Jack interrupted.

 _"They did indeed, though the exact details of Zarc's victory aren't known,"_ Rudger answered. _"The Anunnaki were destroyed, though their part human descendants survived and scattered throughout the world. Seibal meanwhile fell asleep beneath the earth, forgotten until that team of archeologists uncovered it."_

"There's still one thing I want to know," Yugo spoke. "This weird mark I have on my back. That's the same mark that Zarc had, isn't it?"

 _"That is correct, Yugo,"_ Rudger confirmed. _"And the reason you bare that mark, and that you ended up as Clear Wing's master is because you are Zarc's reincarnation. That is why I had Bruno and Sherry take you and put you in the stasis tube in the outer chambers of this compound, and why I had them look after you and Rin at that cabin. It was because you were one of our best and greatest hopes of defeating my brother and eliminating Iliaster."_

"If that's true, then why'd you drag Yusei into all this?" Crow asked.

 _"Because as I said before, I thought that Yusei would make it so I wouldn't have to involve Yugo or Rin in this ugly business,"_ Rudger answered. _"In fact, that's what Yusei wanted as well. I told Yusei practically everything I just told you. Yusei didn't agree to help me just because he wanted to avenge his father. He wanted to do everything possible to protect Yugo and Rin."_

"You mean… Yusei was looking out for us?" Yugo asked.

 _"To the very end,"_ Rudger confirmed. _"But I suppose trying to keep you and Rin out of this war was all meaningless. In the end, it was probably destiny that you both be involved."_

"So now what happens?" Crow asked.

 _"Now… at long last… I can finally rest,"_ Rudger responded.

Suddenly the screen showing Rudger's face turned to static, causing Yugo and a few of the other to become concerned. After a moment though, the elder Goodwin brother's face reappeared.

"Hey! What was that about?" Yugo asked.

"Professor Goodwin's brain is finally starting to give out," Bruno answered. "This has been coming for a while now. Actually, it's amazing that he held on as long as he did. But he wanted to tell you all about the reasons behind why Iliaster was created himself."

 _"There's no need to mourn me,"_ Rudger told him as the screen showing his face began turning to static again. _"I've lived… much longer than I should have. My death is long overdue. The only thing that matters is… I was able to… accomplish what I had set out to achieve… since that Fudo died. We thwarted my brother's ambitions and prevented Seibal from returned to Earth. Now that Iliaster is gone… I can finally… rest in peace."_

Soon after Rudger uttered those last few words, the screen totally went to static. Yugo and the others watched to see if his face would come back, but instead it went totally dark. The large device that the screen was attached to made the kind of low hum a large machine makes when its power is turned off.

"Well, at least we now all know the full story," Matsuri observed.

"Maybe, but it doesn't make me feel any happier," Crow stated. "It doesn't really change the face that we still have a city and most of a planet to rebuild."

"You okay Rin?" Yugo asked, noticing the troubled expression on his girlfriend's face.

"Um, yeah. I think so," Rin answered as she managed to put on a small smile.

"There is one question I still have," Hitomi interjected. "Are we all certain that Seibal won't return? Is it all truly over?"

"Seibal should no longer be an issue," Bruno assured her. "You remember those light pulses that Rex Goodwin's fortress was shooting into the sky, right? Those pulses were being used to send power to Seibal's engines inside the dimensional void, restarting them so Leo Akaba could move the fortress back into our dimension. But by shutting off those pulses, we were able to prevent Seibal's engines from becoming fully charged. There's nothing more to worry about."

Yugo suddenly recalled the last words Rex had said to him right before his death. The younger Goodwin brother had said something about how he had ultimately won the war. Yugo wondered if perhaps there was something about his plan that they had all missed, something that meant that Seibal was still a threat.

"Hey Yugo. Something wrong?" Crow asked, noticing his troubled expression.

"…Nah. I'm probably just overthinking something," Yugo answered. "Goodwin said something to me right before he died, but it was probably just crap."

"You can all go home now," Sherry informed them. "Bruno and I will clean things up here."

"Fine by me," Crow responded. "We still have a much bigger mess to start cleaning up in the morning, and it's not going to get done anytime soon."

* * *

Jack had regained access to the penthouse apartment in the Tops he had before the city had been taken over, and that night he decided to let Yugo and Rin stay in one of his guest rooms until they could figure out more permanent living arrangements. The two of them pretty much had the apartment to themselves that night, as Jack had gone out to let off some steam. Rudger's story about the events leading to the formation of Iliaster had not done much to improve the former duel champion's mood. Just about everyone else who had heard the story of Seibal pretty much had the same reaction to it. Knowing how and why Rex Goodwin had ruined the world didn't really do anything to make it better.

Yugo was standing out on the deck of the penthouse in the dark-grey sleeveless shirt and white sweatpants he had chosen as sleepwear, looking up at the moon. His mind was still going over everything that Rudger had told him. A lot of what the elder Goodwin brother had said about the Anunnaki and his past life as Zarc was unbelievable, and yet he believed every single word of it. There was nothing else that could explain the strange mark on his back, or what had happened to Rin at the end of the duel with Rex. Every single part of the story added up perfectly.

One of the bad things about Rudger's story though was that it had greatly upset Rin. She had put on a brave face in front of the others, but Yugo could tell that the shocking secret of her alien ancestry had disturbed her. Realizing how late it really was, Yugo decided to head for bed. Moments later when he got to the room he and Rin were staying in, he saw Rin sitting on the bed with her knees against her chest. She had already changed into the black t-shirt and grey shorts she was using as sleepwear, but she still had her bracelet on and was looking at it with a troubled expression on her face.

"Rin? You okay?" Yugo asked as he approached the bed.

"No… I'm not," Rin answered. "Tonight I learned that… that I'm not human, at least not completely. I'm a monster."

"Rin, that's just not true," Yugo told her.

"It is true!" Rin insisted as she suddenly sprung up from the bed. "I am a monster! You saw it yourself at the end of that duel with Goodwin!"

"Listen to me!" Yugo told her as he took hold of her by the arms. "Who you're related to doesn't make you a monster! And just because you have the power to summon Dark Synchro Monsters like Zero Bell doesn't mean you have to use it. Bruno and Sherry said so themselves! If you were truly a monster, you wouldn't be so torn up about all this."

"…Yugo… do I still seem… human to you?" Rin asked.

"Rin… you're the most human person I know," Yugo assured her. "None of the stuff we heard tonight changes that."

Rin suddenly pulled away out of Yugo's grasp. "Yugo… I need your help. I need you… to help me feel human again."

Before Yugo could ask what she meant, Rin started to pull up her shirt. What he saw next totally took his breath away.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm sure you can all guess where that final scene at the end of this chapter was going. Of course I can't show the rest of that scene here because of this story's T rating, and I simply can't change a long story like this to an M-rated one simply to show a single steamy scene at the end of a single chapter that's placed near the end of a story that's over thirty chapters long. So I'm going to do what I did with the first story of my _5D's Alternative_ trilogy and present the extended version of this chapter's final scene as a bonus oneshot.

For those of you who wish to see that extended scene, keep your eyes peeled for for its title: **Light of Passion**

To the rest of you who feel like you can pass on seeing that oneshot, simply stay tuned for the next chapter. I should have it up pretty soon, depending on how my weekend goes.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	39. Seibal

**Author's Note:** Just in case anyone missed it, the bonus oneshot to this story, _Light of Passion_ was posted last Friday. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed the story so far. I'm glad it's gotten such good response. Anyway, we now return to our main story!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 39: Seibal

Though things in the city may have been clam, the resistance was in full gear trying to clean up the mess left by Iliaster. Some of the city's resident who had already gotten their implants removed had already awakened, but the lives they had before Rex had taken over were in a complete shambles. Everything that had been normal for them before was no in a total shambles, especially with the city so transformed from what it had been. Nothing for them could be as it was before. It was going to be a major adjustment for everyone, both for the members of the resistance and for those who had been rescued from Iliaster.

Rin was taking things easy that morning. Though there was a lot to do, Crow and some of the others insisted that she take the day off after learning about her troubled heritage from Rudger Goodwin. With not much else to do, Rin had decided to go to the makeshift cafeteria set up for the resistance in one of the now abandoned buildings for a little snack. She was still processing the revelation of her Anunnaki heritage, but also on her mind was what she and Yugo had shared last night.

"Hello, Rin," a familiar voice spoke. Rin looked up from her half-eaten plate of food and saw Aki standing before her table with Sherry and Matsuri. "How you doing?"

"Um, I'm doing pretty well I guess," Rin answered.

"You sure?" Aki asked. "You were pretty shaken up last night after hearing Rudger Goodwin's story, and I can't blame you."

"It is a lot for me to deal with, but I'm doing okay," Rin assured them. "Yugo helped me a lot with dealing with it last night."

"What do you mean?" Aki asked.

Rin's cheeks turned a slight shade of red. "Well… he was uh… just there for me, that's all."

"The two of you finally had sex last night, didn't you," Matsuri deduced.

At this, Rin's whole face turned as red as a tomato. "Wh-wh-what the hell ever gave you that idea!"

"Called it," Matsuri responded with a triumphant smirk. "You just confirmed everything for me."

"Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time before that happened," Sherry remarked. "With the way those two took to sleeping in the same bed back at the cabin…"

"Oh really?" Matsuri interrupted as a huge grin formed on her face. "Why don't you tell us a little more, Ms. LeBlanc?"

"Listen, all of you!" Rin loudly cut in as she shot up from her chair. "What Yugo and I may or may not have done last night isn't any of your business!"

With that, Rin stormed away from the table, leaving her plate unfinished.

Aki sighed and shook her head. "Matsuri, did you really have to go there?"

"Hey, I couldn't help it," Matsuri replied with a shrug. "Besides, clearly she's feeling better than she was."

"That is true," Aki agreed. "Well, at least we know things between her and Yugo are going well."

* * *

Yugo was hard at work doing maintenance in the garage that had been set up for the resistance inside the pyramid fortress. The garage had originally been used as a hanger for security droids, but the now dead robots had been cleared out in order to make use of the space. Yugo's vehicle had taken a bit of damage during the duel against Rex, and no one had gotten around to fixing it yet. Fortunately the damage had proven to be very minor.

Crow entered the garage as Yugo was starting to finish up. "Everything in top shape?"

"Yep," Yugo answered as he started putting away some of his tools. "I was actually afraid that the damage was going to be a whole lot worse."

"You know it's kind of weird that we're now using this pyramid as our base," Crow remarked as he looked around the garage. "God only knows what it'll be once we get the city back on its feet."

"You think things in this city will change a lot?" Yugo asked.

"There's no question about it. Neo Domino can never go back to the way things were before," Crow told him. "For one thing, it'll need an entirely new government. Nah… the Neo Domino of the past is gone forever."

"In a lot of ways, that's kind of a good thing. I mean the way this city used to be was pretty messed up," Yugo pointed out. "As long as nobody tries to bring back the division between the Commons and the Tops, we'll be a lot better off."

"No argument there," Crow agreed. "That should hopefully be easy enough to stop now that those five rich old geezers who ruled the city are gone. Of course I also worry about the rest of the world, all the parts that got taken over by Iliaster, I mean. They're probably in a lot worse shape than we are."

"Haven't Saiga and Carly been in contact with the surviving parts of the world mounting a recovery effort?" Yugo recalled.

"Yeah, but it's still a big job. Plus there are all the resistance branches that got taken out by Jaeger's Freak Show unit," Crow pointed out. "Some of the branches survived the attack, like the branch out in England. Apparently they had some kind of elite warrior there to help them out. Still… it's a major mess out there."

"Yeah… I guess so," Yugo agreed.

"But enough about that stuff," Crow decided. "So, word around the camp is that you and Rin finally got it on last night. Any truth to that?"

Yugo turned bright red as he tripped while trying to put back a wrench. "Who the hell… I mean… I have no clue what you're talking about!"

Crow chuckled. "Okay, okay. I'm just glad to hear that Rin seems to be doing better. Well, I got stuff to do. Catch ya later."

With that, Crow walked out of the garage whistling something. Yugo stood there totally frozen in place, mortified that someone had figured out what he and Rin were up to last night.

After a moment, Yugo finished putting back his tools and let out a heavy sigh. "Man! Guess I gotta get better at keeping secrets."

* * *

Bruno was in one of the pyramid's control rooms, wearing his more casual outfit. He was busy looking over some of the design specs for the fortress trying to figure out ways to perhaps convert its technology into something else.

As Bruno finished looking over another file, Sherry walked into the room. "How's it going?"

"Slow," Bruno answered as Sherry walked over to stand by his chair. "It's going to take us months to figure out how all these systems operate."

"Well, you'll figure it out," Sherry told him. "So, did you hear about Rin and Yugo?"

"I have. And it's not any of my business," Bruno told her, not once taking his eyes from the screen.

"Boy, you're really not one for gossip, are you?" Sherry observed.

Bruno was too transfixed by something that had popped up on the screen of his terminal to hear a single word Sherry had just said. The information that came up caused all of the color to drain from his face.

"Dear God!" Bruno spoke as he rose from his chair. "How… how could we have been so blind?"

"Hey, what's up?" Sherry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I have to go find Crow and the others, quick!" Bruno told her as he headed for the door. "We may have played into Goodwin's hands without even knowing it!"

* * *

Yugo and Rin had returned to Jack's place in order to get away from everyone for a while. It seemed that they had become the major topic of gossip thanks largely in part to Matsuri's little conversation with Rin. The two of them were standing on the deck looking out over the city. So much of it had changed, yet a lot of it all seemed the same.

"You remember when we dreamed of getting a place up here in the Tops?" Rin asked.

"Yeah. I swore that one day I'd win the Friendship Cup and get us a huge mansion where we could live," Yugo recalled. "It almost seems like a lifetime ago."

"We had so many hopes and dreams," Rin spoke. "And now… I'm not sure where we go from here. I'm not even sure where we're going to be living in this city now."

"I guess we might still be able to get a place up here in the Tops," Yugo suggested. "I'm not sure how yet, but it's probably possible."

Suddenly the gemstone in in Rin's bracelet began to flash on and off, a phenomenon that both of them noticed immediately. As Rin and Yugo attempted to figure out what was going on, a blinding flash of light went off above the city. After a few moments, the light finally cleared, and when the two of them looked, they saw a large object floating in the sky. The object in question almost resembled an old clay top. The underside of the object had a spiraling path around it showed what almost appeared to be the remains of ancient buildings, and on its flat top of was a vast ancient-looking city.

"What the hell?" Yugo exclaimed. "What is that thing?"

Rin recognized what the object in the sky was right away. "It's… Seibal."

"Seriously? But how's that possible?" Yugo asked. "Bruno said that Seibal couldn't come here because we shut down the lights from the pyramid!"

Suddenly a gigantic transparent hologram even larger than Seibal appeared above the city. The hologram was of a blad man with tan skin who seemed to be in his late thirties or early forties. His right eye was violet, while covering his left eye was a strange grey eyepiece with an infinity symbol on it. The eyepiece extended back to cover his left ear, and was attached to a round black metal plate with chrome trim on the side of the man's head. The man had on a long white coat under a piece of silver chest armor with a black vertical infinity symbol on the front, along with black gloves, long black pants and brown boots.

"Rin, is that who I think it is?" Yugo asked.

"Yeah… it's my dad," Rin answered.

"I speak to all people of this world!" the hologram of Leo spoke in a booming voice. "My name is Leo Akaba! Many years ago, I found out that I was descended from a race of superior beings who came to this world from the stars thousands of years ago; a race that wished only to guide humanity along the proper path of peace and prosperity. So now I have come back, armed with this castle of my ancestors… this aerial fortress of Seibal… to continue the work that my ancestors started! From this time forward, I shall be the master of this planet!

"I am well aware that there are many among you who will try to resist me. Such rebels are the reason why I have been unable to come to you all until now. But I have only the best interest of the human race at heart! I am here to guide humanity away from its path of self-destruction. However, I am well aware that many of you hearing my voice right now may still try to resist me.

"That is why I have no choice but to show you the extent of my power! Within twenty hours, I shall use this fortress to attack and destroy every major city around the world! I shall burn away the old and corrupt order that has existed and replace it with a new and enlightened society! Neo Domino City will be but the first to fall! I ask that those of you listening to use the next twenty hours to consider your future carefully.

"I ask those of you who wish to be spared to pledge your allegiance to me within the period of time I have given you! Otherwise you will be purged in order to ensure the harmony of the new world! That is all!"

With that, the hologram of Leo vanished. Yugo and Rin were left totally stunned by what they had just witnessed.

"This… is a nightmare," Rin spoke. "My father is going to try and conquer the world!"

"We have to get to the others, quick!" Yugo decided. "There's gotta be a way to stop him!"

* * *

Everyone in the resistance had witnessed Leo Akaba's announcement that he was to be the new master of Earth. Once Yugo and Rin met up with Crow, all the major players in the resistance gathered in the main control room of the pyramid to try and figure out what to do next.

"What I don't get is how Seibal even got here," Crow spoke. "I thought that fortress couldn't get here because we stopped this damn pyramid from sending it power."

"The reason why Seibal came here is because of the duel with Goodwin," Bruno explained. "It turns out that Goodwin had been able to use the energy generated by his duel with Yugo and Rin to send extra power to Seibal. The summoning of Comet Wing Synchro Dragon and Windwitch – Zero Bell generated tremendous amounts of energy, enough to finish charging Seibal's engines. After that, all Leo Akaba needed to do was fire the engines up trigger another dimensional jump."

"How come we're not learning about this until now?" Saiga asked.

"Honestly, I never anticipated this happening," Bruno admitted. "I didn't even find out that Goodwin had set up the arena to gather energy from a duel until earlier today while I was looking over the power systems."

"So this is what Goodwin meant," Yugo realized. "Before he died, he said something about how he had won the war even though Rin beat him."

"That bastard always had a dirty trick of some kind up his sleeve," Jack remarked.

"It doesn't really matter now how Seibal got here," Ushio pointed out. "In less than twenty hours now, Leo Akaba is going to blow up this city and every other major city in the world. We have to figure out some way to stop him."

"There's only one way to do that now," Rin told them. "We have to get aboard Seibal and defeat my father."

"But how are we supposed to do that?" Andre asked.

"We could use some sort of aircraft to fly onto it," Jean suggested.

"That probably won't work," Bruno told them. "Seibal likely has some kind of shield to prevent such an attack."

"Well we've gotta figure out something," Crow told them. "If we don't come up with a plan soon, we're all dead!"

* * *

Crow and the others spent three hours debating on a plan of attack to take down Seibal and had come up with nothing. Everyone had decided to take a half hour break to cool down and come up with some fresh ideas. Rin and Yugo had been spending the break standing outside the main doors of the fortress, looking up at Seibal.

"There's gotta be some way for us to get up there," Yugo declared.

"It's like Rudger Goodwin said last night, the technology of Seibal is far beyond anything the human race has," Rin pointed out. "I don't think there's anything we can use to penetrate that fortress."

Suddenly the gemstone in Rin's bracelet began to glow again, causing Rin and Yugo to look. Everything around them became bathed in an ethereal green light.

"Yugo… I think my dad is calling me to Seibal," Rin spoke as she looked at her bracelet. "He wants me to be with him up there while he takes over the planet."

"You aren't actually gonna go, are you?" Yugo asked.

"Don't you see, Yugo? This is the way in we've been looking for," Rin told him. "If I can get onto Seibal, I can probably put a stop to his plans. Maybe I can reason with him, or if not… well, I guess I'll do whatever I have to."

"Okay… then I'm going with you," Yugo decided. "Your dad probably isn't going to listen to reason, so I'll help you knock some sense into him. Besides, any fight of yours is my fight too."

Rin smiled and nodded. "Okay. Let's get going."

* * *

The half hour break was almost over, and Crow had gone to get Yugo and Rin for the next round of the meeting. The redhead eventually found them in the garage getting their D-Wheel's ready to go.

"What the heck do you two think you're doing at a time like this?" Crow asked.

"Yugo and I are going to Seibal," Rin answered. "My father is using my bracelet to reach me. Don't ask me exactly how I know, but I'm sure this bracelet is what's going to allow me and Yugo to board the fortress."

"Okay, then I'll go get everyone and we'll storm the fortress together," Crow decided.

"There's no time for that, Crow!" Yugo told him. "Rin and I have to do this alone."

"Besides, I'm sure if my dad saw me coming with a huge army, he wouldn't let me aboard," Rin added.

"But I can't just let you guys do this alone! That's nuts!" Crow declared.

"You let us take Goodwin on alone," Yugo pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was different," Crow responded. "Leo Akaba seems a hell of a lot more dangerous than Goodwin ever was. I know you two can take care of yourselves, but this is something you need backup for."

"Well I'm afraid we're not gonna have it," Yugo told him. "And we don't need it, either."

"You stubborn little…" Crow began.

"Just let them go, Crow," a familiar voice spoke. The three of them saw Jack standing in the doorway. "They've made their decision, and nothing you do can change it."

Crow clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in frustration. "Fine, go. But you two better be careful."

Yugo and Rin nodded to Crow before mounting their D-Wheels. Jack meanwhile went in and flipped the switch to open the large garage door. Yugo and Rin revved their engines and were out the door in seconds. Jack and Crow watched until they became specks in the distance.

"When are you ever going to stop being such an overprotective mother hen?" Jack asked.

"What can I say? When you've looked after kids as much as I have, you tend to be a bit overprotective," Crow responded. "You think those two can beat Leo Akaba?"

"I think you should be able to figure out the answer to that by now," Jack told him. "If Yugo is strong enough to have defeated me that one time, Leo Akaba doesn't stand a chance."

* * *

Yugo followed Rin through the streets of the city to the place where she thought they should be able to board Seibal. The city seemed completely deserted as they neared their destination. The few citizens who had actually regained consciousness had clearly decided to stay indoors after hearing Leo Akaba's declaration of conquest. Within a few minutes, the couple reached a spot that was almost directly beneath the floating fortress.

"So what do we do now?" Yugo asked.

"I think… I think this," Rin answered as she raised her bracelet towards the fortress.

The gem in Rin's bracelet began to glow once again. After a moment, the light stopped and a massive beam of white light shot down from Seibal's underside, hitting a spot just a few feet from where Yugo and Rin had parked.

"This is it. Once we drive into that light, we'll be taken aboard Seibal," Rin told Yugo.

"Then what're we waiting for?" Yugo responded. "Let's do this."

Rin and Yugo drove into the light at the exact same time. Once they did, the beam retracted back up into the fortress within less than a second. The two of them were now aboard the fortress, about to face their destiny.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The real final battle is up ahead. Until next time, please stay tuned for the next chapter.

Pleas review and let me know what you think.


	40. Children of the Gods

**Important Author's Note:** Yesterday I had to correct a small yet very significant error to Chapter 24 of this story. I'm not going to explain how I came upon this error, but I found out that I had listed the Pendulum Scale of Windwitch - Drizzle Bell as 8 instead of 9. It was apparently a simple case of pressing the 8 key instead of the 9 key without realizing it. Of course the rest of Rin's dialogue in that chapter states that Drizzle Bell's Pendulum Scale is nine instead of eight, but it was still an error that needed to be corrected ASAP, especially since Drizzle Bell will be showing up again in this chapter.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 40: Children of the Gods

The beam of light that had pulled Yugo and Rin up to Seibal had placed them at the end of a long path that spiraled up the side of the citadel's top-shaped base. Rin led the way as they drove up the path, both feeling certain that it would lead them to the city on the fortress's top. As they drove, they noticed how the fortress seemed to be made of old buildings that seemed as though they had been ripped from the earth and meshed together in order to form the hull. Rin didn't quite know why, but she felt that the reason why Seibal had been cobbled together from a mass of buildings was because it was an attempt on the Anunnaki's part to preserve as much of their old world as possible. She didn't feel the need to mention that little bit of trivia to Yugo though.

After what ended up being a relatively short drive, Rin and Yugo reached the end of the spiraling path and made it to the top. What the two saw was breathtaking to both of them. The vast city on the fortress's top was perfectly preserved. Its architecture was as magnificent as any city built by the Ancient Egyptians might've looked in its heyday. The buildings of this city were made of a golden stone that seemed to glitter in the light. As Rin took in the city, she was almost overcome by the same feeling of homecoming that her father must have experienced when he first walked those same ancient streets.

"Man! For an evil lair, this place sure looked amazing," Yugo remarked. "I mean it puts the Tops to shame."

"Yeah… it really is a marvelous place," Rin agreed. "In fact… I kind of feel like I've been searching for this place my whole life."

"Uh, Rin? You okay?" Yugo asked. "You're starting to freak me out a tiny bit."

Rin smiled and shook her head. "Sorry. I'm fine. It's just… now I know all of it is true. I really am a descendant of the Anunnaki. This fortress is my ancestral home."

"Okay, but… this doesn't mean you're going to turn on me and side with your dad, is it?" Yugo asked.

"Of course not, silly" Rin assured him. "The Anunnaki may be my ancestors, and they really were an incredible people, but they certainly weren't gods and they had no right to try and control the human race. My dad needs to understand that."

"Okay then," Yugo responded. "So where do you think he is?"

"There," Rin answered as she pointed to a large castle up ahead that had a tall obelisk-like tower. "I think that's where the fortress was controlled."

With that, the two of them drove on down the vast main street of the city towards the castle. Within another few short minutes, they arrived at the castle's front steps. After they dismounted, Rin led the way up the steps to the castle's large main door. When they eventually entered the throne room, they found Leo Akaba sitting on the throne, looking as though he was asleep.

Once the couple began to approach though, Leo raised his head and opened his eye. "Rin… I knew you would come."

"Hi dad," Rin responded. "This… this is kind of a big moment for us, huh? It's the first time we're actually meeting."

"You don't remember me at all, do you?" Leo responded. "I didn't expect that you would. You were incredibly young when I ended up leaving you. For that, I am deeply sorry. I had meant to retrieve you years ago when I got this fortress operational, but I was stopped by those who were too ignorant to realize what I was trying to accomplish."

"I know all about what happened now," Rin told him. "I heard about it from Rudger Goodwin."

"But now we can make up for lost time," Leo declared as he rose from his throne. "And you can now live the life of glory and splendor that was always meant for you. I imagine that living as an orphan of the Commons was not at all easy, but now you can put all that behind you and live the life of a goddess! Together, you and I will reshape this world into a paradise, side by side as father and daughter."

"Dad, I… I don't want any part of this!" Rin told him. "We have no right to try and conquer this planet just because we're descended from the Anunnaki, and the Anunnaki had no right to rule it either."

Leo scowled and shook his head. "Your life in Neo Domino has damaged you much more than I thought. But in time, you will see things differently. I can sense that your Anunnaki blood has awakened, so it should not take you long to fully realize your place here."

"I've realized a lot more than you think I have," Rin declared. "One of those things is even if you and I are descended from aliens, that doesn't make us gods. The Anunnaki weren't gods either. If they were, they could've prevented their planet from dying. And they definitely had no right to try and control the human race."

"But Rin, humanity needed the Anunnaki's guidance in order to survive," Leo told her. "They still do! Growing up in Neo Domino the way you did, surely you have realized how corrupt and self-destructive the human race is! I realized it many years ago, long before uncovering the secret of our ancestors. And now I shall use this inheritance of our ancestors to finally correct all the flaws of human society!"

"I've already seen what you have in mind for the human race," Rin told him. "Rex Goodwin tried to carry out your vision for over two years! And his solution for fixing the human race wasn't life at all!"

"I already know all about what Rex has done," Leo revealed. "He and I had been in contact for many years, and I told him many times that I disagreed with his collective. You and I will rule with a much gentler hand. The free will of humans will remain, but they will still have to follow the laws we set down for them. It will likely take time for them to adjust, but they will learn to obey or else suffer the kind of punishment that only gods can dispense."

"You can take those damn laws of yours and shove 'em!" Yugo declared. "We don't want any part of this screwed up world of yours!"

Leo looked at Yugo with an expression of utter hatred. "Rin! Why did you bring that wretched boy here to this sacred palace? Do you know who he is? He is the reincarnation of Zarc, the minion of the Crimson Dragon! The enemy to destroyed our ancestors and put humanity back on the path to ruin! What are you even doing with him?"

"Yugo is someone very precious to me!" Rin told him. "He has just as much a right to be here as I do!"

"I see… so your relationship with this boy has corrupted you," Leo assumed. "It appears I'm going to have to deal with him before anything else."

"If you want a duel with me, that's just fine!" Yugo agreed.

"And if Yugo's dueling you, than so am I!" Rin declared. "He and I will take you down together!"

Leo gritted his teeth in frustration. "Fine… if you both intend to challenge me together, then I shall face you. We will fight in the streets of Seibal!"

With that, Leo snapped his fingers and suddenly the entire floor of the castle lit up. Before Rin or Yugo could figure out what was happening, they both became enveloped in light. When the light finally faded, they were both back on their D-Wheels with their helmets on. Their vehicles were now also facing away from the castle.

"Where the heck do your dad go?" Yugo asked as he looked around.

"I don't know," Rin answered. "But I'm sure he'll show up soon."

Suddenly flying from the tower of the castle to come down and hover beside Rin and Yugo was a golden aircraft similar to Rex Goodwin's flying D-Wheel, but longer. Leo was sitting in the vehicle's pilot seat.

"Because the two of you are facing me as a team, I shall begin this duel with 8000 life points while you each begin with the standard amount of 4000," Leo decided.

"Fine with us," Rin agreed.

"It is?" Yugo asked.

"Action Field on!" Leo called out as he pressed a button on his D-Wheel's controls. "Celestial Arena!"

Suddenly the buildings of the city began to glow with an ethereal golden light, and the once clear sunlit sky above was transformed into a sea of stars. An explosion of white light went off above and several Action Cards rained down upon the city. As the cards finished falling, all three of them took off down the city's main street at top speed. Once they reached the end of the street, Yugo rounded the corner on the right first, followed closely by Rin as Leo chased after them.

"My move!" Yugo announced. "Because I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

On cue, Yugo's train of red mechanical tops materialized next to his D-Wheel.

"I use Terrortop's effect to add Speedroid Taketomborg to my hand!" Yugo announced. "Next I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

The golden die appeared on the road next to Terrortop.

"Because Red-Eyed Dice was just summoned, I use its effect to change Terrortop's level from three to four!" Yugo announced. "Now, because I have a Wind monster on the field, I special summon Speedroid Taketomborg!"

Taketomborg materialized on the battlefield in its aircraft form before unfolding into its robot mode.

"I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level three Taketomborg and the level four Terrortop to Synchro Summon a level eight monster in Defense Mode!" Yugo announced.

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled the other two monsters and transformed them into seven white stars.

"Mechanical soldier from the stars above! Charge forth at high speed and crush the unjust with your shield!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Level eight! Hi-Speedroid Model Mecha Road Block!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of white light that expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal Yugo's shield-wielding robot warrior. Road Block's shield was already raised to intercept any attack that might come towards it.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yugo announced.

"Which means I'm up next!" Rin declared as she drew her first card. "I summon Windwitch – Cloud Bell in Attack Mode!"

On cue, the white-haired Cloud Bell materialized next to Rin's D-Wheel.

"When Cloud Bell has been Normal Summoned, I can summon a Windwitch Tuner monster from my deck!" Rin announced. "I summon Windwitch – Snow Bell!"

Cloud Bell flew in a circle around Rin's D-Wheel, and as she did a small puffy white cloud flew out of the bell at the end of her broomstick. The cloud quickly broke apart to reveal the Christmas ornament-like Snow Bell

"Now, using the Scale 1 Windwitch – South Polar Bell and the Scale 9 Windwitch – Drizzle Bell, I set the Pendulum Scale!" Rin announced.

Once Rin placed the two cards in question at the far ends of her D-Wheel, the word, "Pendulum" flashed across it in multicolored letters. Two tubes of ethereal blue light appeared next to Rin's D-Wheel. South Polar Bell was contained inside the tube on Rin's left, while the lavender-haired Drizzle Bell was contained inside the other tube.

"With the Pendulum Scale set at one and nine, I can simultaneously summon monsters from level two to eight!" Rin announced.

The numbers one and nine appeared underneath South Polar Bell and Drizzle Bell respectively as a giant crystal pendulum appeared in the sky above and began to draw a circle of light.

"Swing! Pendulum of ages! Draw and arc of light across the heavens!" Rin chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle being drawn by the giant pendulum suddenly turned into a hole of blue light. A ball of gold light flew down out of the hole, followed closely by a ball of a ball of blue light.

"Elegant witch of the reliable chime!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Brass Bell!"

The ball of golden light faded to reveal Brass Bell.

"Witch of the early winter chill!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Frost Bell!"

The third and final ball of light faded to reveal Frost Bell.

"I activate South Polar Bell's effect and changed Tin Bell's level from three to four!" Rin announced.

South Polar Bell waved her wand and fired a beam of blue light from its tip down at Tin Bell. The light struck Tin Bell in the shoulder and caused her to glow briefly with a blue aura as her level went up by one.

"I tune the level four Brass Bell into the level three Frost Bell for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Brass Bell flashed orange and changed into four green rings of light. The rings encircled Frost Bell and transformed the winter witch into three white stars.

"Midwinter wind, harness ice and snow and blow a storm!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level seven, Windwitch – Winter Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a beam of white light that shot down the road and expanded outward. In moments the light faded to reveal Rin's ace witch.

"I now tune the level one Snow Bell into the level two Cloud Bell for a level three Synchro Summon!" Rin announced.

Snow Bell flashed orange and changed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Cloud Bell and transformed her into two white stars.

"Gentle wind of winter's beginning, gather here and now to bring forth a new season of wishes!" Rin chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear! Level three! Windwitch – Solstice Bell!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward. In seconds, the light faded to reveal a young woman with ice-blue eyes and long glittering blue hair with a streak of white at the front that covered her right eye. Atop her head was a white Santa hat with silver fur around the brim and a silver bell at the end. The girl's outfit was a white bodysuit with silver trim and a short skirt that was open in the front. On her chest was a large red bow with a blue crystal brooch on the front framed by a golden snowflake. Hanging from her back was a long flowing white cape with silver fur all around its edges, and in her right hand was a blue crystal wand with a snowflake at the end. The witch rode atop a blue crystal broomstick with a gold and silver bell at the end.

"When Solstice Bell has been Synchro Summoned, I can inflict 200 points of damage times the level of another Windwitch Synchro Monster I control!" Rin announced. "Since I have Winter Bell on the field, you take 1400 points of damage!"

Solstice Bell waved her wand and shot a bolt of blue lightning from its tip at Leo. The lightning bolt struck the nose of Leo's flying D-Wheel and caused a layer of frost to form on it. Leo's life points took a drop to 6600.

"Now I activate Winter Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, Winter Bell lets me inflict 200 points of damage times the level of a Windwitch monster in my Graveyard! I use Frost Bell's level to inflict another 600 points of damage!"

Winter Bell fired bolts of blue lightning from her eyes that struck the nose of Leo's flying D-Wheel. Upon being hit, Leo's life points dropped to 6000.

"That ends my turn!" Rin announced.

Leo drew his next card. "For my first move, I activate the Spell card, Dian Keto the Cure Master to raise my life points by 1000!"

Sparkling gold lights rained down on Leo from above and raises his life points to 7000.

"Rin, I can see that you've become quite skilled at using Pendulum Monsters," Leo remarked. "As my daughter, I expected nothing less. But I am about to show you that you still have very much to learn! Using the Scale 0 Meklord Operator Void Worker and the Scale 13 Meklord Operator Infinity Worker, I now set the Pendulum Scale!"

Once Leo placed the aforementioned cards at the far edges of his duel disk blade, the word, "Pendulum" flashed across it in multicolored letters. Tubes of ethereal blue light then appeared to Leo's left and right. Inside the tube on Leo's right was a robot sitting in some sort of black top-like object that had a flat base with a sort of small laser cannon on the bottom. The top-like object seemed to be some sort of floating workstation with various control panels all around. The robot itself, known as Void Worker, had a black torso with a white circle on the front to represent the number zero. Covering its face was a white mask that three black holes on it to apparently represent its eyes and mouth. The robot also have four very slender white arms with silver ball joints at the shoulders and elbows, and a black curved spikes at the end of each arm in place of a hand.

Inside the tube on Leo's left was a robot very similar design to Void Worker, only its floating workstation was white and had a pointed base with a red crystal sphere on the tip. Its torso was white and had a black infinity symbol on the front. The robot's face was smooth chrome mask with a slender black screen near the top that showed a red eye going back and forth. Coming out of the sides of its head were two flat black horns that met at the top to form a ring. The robot had four very slender black arms with silver joints at the shoulders and elbows, and a fully articulated black hand with five fingers at the end of each arm.

"Pendulum Monsters with scales of zero and thirteen? I didn't even know there were Pendulum Monsters like that!" Yugo remarked.

"Neither did I," Rin responded. "This means my dad can Pendulum Summon monsters of any level he wants."

"With the scale set at zero and thirteen, I can simultaneously summon monsters from levels one to twelve!" Leo announced.

Large orange numbers one and zero appeared beneath Void Worker and Infinity Worker respectively. Soon after, a large crystal pendulum appeared in the sky above and began drawing a circle of light.

"Swing! Pendulum of the Gods! Draw and arc of light across the heavens!" Leo chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle of light drawn by the pendulum became a portal filled with blue light. A large ball of crackling black energy suddenly shot down out of the portal and struck the road.

"The living generator that powers the underworld!" Leo called out. "Meklord Dynamo Hades!"

The ball of black energy faded away to reveal a gigantic black robot that resembled a Meklord Emperor. It had large metal shoulder pads, but no arms. The machine's base resembled that of a large rocket booster split down the middle like the base of Meklord Emperor Granel. On its chest was a window with a silver frame in the shape of an infinity symbol, and inside its chest was crackling ball of red electricity. The robot's head had a black samurai-like helmet with a red three-pointed crest at the top, and its mask-like face was black grill beneath a single long red eye.

"A level eleven Pendulum Monster," Yugo observed. "But with only 2000 ATK?"

"There's something not right about that thing," Rin spoke.

"I activate Void Worker's Pendulum Effect!" Leo announced. "Once per turn, Void Worker allows me to destroy a Meklord monster I control. I use this effect to destroy Meklord Dynamo Hades!"

Void Worker began tapping some of the controls on its floating workstation with its four slender arms. Suddenly the laser cannon underneath the workstation rotated and pointed right at Hades. The cannon fired a beam of red energy that struck the black Meklord robot in the chest, causing it to explode in a massive blast of fire and smoke.

"When Hades has been destroyed by a card effect, I can summon three Meklord Emperors from my hand or deck regardless of their summoning conditions," Leo announced. "I call from my deck, Meklord Emperors Wisel, Skiel and Granel!"

The smoke from the explosion of Hades soon cleared away to reveal all three Meklord Emperors. Suddenly Infinity Worker began to tap some of the keys of his floating workstation. Seconds later, the red sphere on the base of the workstation began to glow, and suddenly the eyes of all three Meklord Emperors began to shine brighter.

"Infinity Worker's Pendulum Effect allows all Meklord Emperor monster I control to attack regardless of their effects," Leo announced. "It was foolish of you both to oppose me with Synchro Monsters! I activate Wisel's effect and use it to equip itself with Model Mecha Road Block!"

"Big mistake!" Yugo declared. "I activate Road Block's effect! By switching him to Attack Mode, Road Block can negate Wisel's effect and destroy it!"

Wisel launched the energy cables from its chest at Yugo's monster, only for Road Block to knock them away with his shield. The robot warrior then gripped the sides of his shield and converted the weapon into its scissor-like vice mode. Road Block zoomed across the battlefield on his skates until face to face with Wisel and clamped onto the white Meklord Emperor's torso. The vice squeezed into Wisel's torso, causing cracks to appear. Then at last, Wisel exploded in a ball of fire and debris.

"You may have defeated one of my Meklord Emperors, but I still have two left!" Leo pointed out.

Suddenly Rin revved the engine of her D-Wheel. "Arctic wind of the Northern Lights, gather here and illuminate this desolate winter land!"

"I activate Meklord Emperor Skiel's effect to equip itself with Windwitch – Solstice Bell!" Leo announced.

"Accel Synchro!" Rin called out as Skiel's chest began to open up.

Suddenly Rin and her two monsters became shrouded in a pinkish-red light as Solstice Bell transformed into three green rings of light and encircled Winter Bell. At the extact same time, the card for Windwitch – Zero Bell popped out of the Extra Deck slot of Rin's D-Wheel and took on a new form. A split second later, Rin and her monsters vanished in a streak of light, causing Skiel's energy cables to grab nothing. Both Leo and Yugo were totally stunned by Rin's vanishing act. As Leo tried to figure out what had happened, a streak of pinkish-red light appeared from behind him and Rin zoomed out of it with a new monster flying behind her.

The upper half of the monster in question was that of a mechanical-looking woman that appeared to be made out of silver. Her arms were bare except for a pair of blue bracelets, and covering her chest was a blue breastplate with white trim and a white snowflake-like symbol on the stomach. She had a long blue helmet identical to Winter Bell's, and an angelic face with dazzling emerald eyes. On her back was pair of large feathered wings that glowed with a dazzling multicolored light. The monster's lower half meanwhile was a large silver bell with a gold band near the bottom and a gold snowflake-like design on all four sides.

"Be born!" Rin called out. "Windwitch – Aurora Bell!"

"What on earth?" a stunned Leo exclaimed.

"When Solstice Bell is sent to the Extra Deck as Synchro Material, her effect lets me use her as a replacement for one of the cards already in my Pendulum Zones by shuffling that card into my deck!" Rin announced. "I use Solstice Bell to replace South Polar Bell!"

South Polar Bell suddenly glowed and turned into particles of blue light inside her tube. The particles of light then reassembled into Solstice Bell. The Synchro Tuner's crystal broomstick was floating at her side.

"With Solstice Bell now in the Pendulum Zone, my Pendulum Scale is still set at one and nine!" Rin announced.

Yugo's jaw was still hanging open as he looked at Rin. "Uh… Rin? How the heck did you just Accel Synchro Summon?"

"Um… I don't know," Rin answered with a shrug. "Just instinct, I guess."

"Are you kidding? Bruno had to show me that technique!" Yugo told her. "And even then, it took me a few times just to get it right. And you're telling me that you were able to do it just by instinct?"

"Well I don't know what to tell you!" Rin responded. "Can't you just be happy that I just gave us a big advantage? This new monster of mine has 3400 ATK, you know!"

"Yeah, okay. But still! Something about this is just kinda weird!" Yugo declared.

"Truly an interesting technique," Leo remarked. "And it seems you possess Synchro Monsters that are also Pendulum Monsters as well. That was something that our ancestors never came up with. Still, these new summoning methods of yours will not help you! You forget that I still have one Meklord Emperor left! I use Granel's effect to equip itself with Aurora Bell!"

"And I activate Aurora Bell's effect!" Rin announced. "When Aurora Bell is targeted by an opponent's monster effect, she can banish herself from the field to negate that effect!"

Granel opened its chest and launched its energy cables across the field at Aurora Bell. Before Aurora Bell could ne snared though, she suddenly zoomed away and vanished completely, leaving a trail of multicolored light like an aurora behind her.

"And now one of Solstice Bell's Pendulum Effects activates!" Rin announced. "When a Windwitch Synchro Monster is banished from the field, Solstice Bell increases my life points by an amount equal to half the banished monster's DEF!"

Solstice Bell waved her wand, causing particles of blue light like snow to rain down upon Rin. Rin's life points then rose up to 5500.

"Well played," Leo admitted. "But even though you managed to block the effects of my Meklord Emperors, they can both still attack! And since Granel currently has 3500 ATK, he's more than a match for that meddlesome machine monster of yours. Granel! Obliterate Model Mecha Road Block!"

Granel aimed the cannon on its left arm at Road Block and fired a powerful beam of blue light at him.

"I activate my Trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Yugo announced. "This card cancels Granel's attack!"

Suddenly a scarecrow made of junk appeared in front of Road Block as the beam attack continued on its course. At about the same time, Leo spotted an Action Card up ahead on the road. In a single swift motion, Leo did a barrel roll and grabbed the Action Card just as the blast from Granel was about to strike Yugo's scarecrow.

"I activate the Action Card, Divine Deinal!" Leo announced. "This card negates your Trap card's effect and destroys it!"

A lightning bolt came down from the sky and struck the scarecrow, burning it to ash and smoldering metal. Soon after, the blast from Granel's cannon struck Road Block in the chest, causing him to explode. Yugo's life points dropped to 3200.

"And now Rin, what I do next, I do out of love… to show you the error of your ways," Leo declared. "I use Meklord Emperor Skiel to attack you directly!"

Skiel fired a blast of blue-green energy from the cannon on its underside down at Rin. Rin was struck in the back and cried out as her life points dropped to 3300.

"You okay?" a concerned Yugo asked.

"I'm good," Rin assured him. "It'll take a worse attack than that to knock me out."

"I set two cards on the field and end my turn," Leo announced.

"And at this moment, Aurora Bell returns to the field and hits you with 800 points of damage!" Rin announced.

Suddenly Aurora Bell zoomed past Leo with a streak of multicolored light trailing behind her, grazing the side of his flying D-Wheel. Leo's flying machine swerved and was nearly knocked off course as his life points dropped to 6200. At the same time, Granel's life points dropped to 3100 because of its effect.

"I now activate Solstice Bell's other Pendulum Effect!" Rin announced. "Once during either turn, when my opponent takes damage from the effect of a Windwitch monster, Solstice Bell lets me draw one card!"

"If you thought Rin and I were going to go down easy, you were dead wrong!" Yugo declared.

"Indeed… your skills are much greater than I expected," Leo admitted. "But now I shall hold nothing back! Very soon you will regret standing in the way of my new world order!"

* * *

Please review and let me know what you think.


	41. Dark God of the Meklords

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 41: Dark God of the Meklords

Crow stood outside the main door of the pyramid looking up at Seibal with Jack, Aki, Ruka, Rua, Bruno and Sherry. They hadn't heard a single word from Yugo and Rin since they had left, which they took to mean that the couple had managed to get aboard the flying fortress. Unfortunately they had no way of telling what was going on atop Seibal. Meanwhile, the rest of the resistance was on high alert. The hours before the start of Leo Akaba's operation to destroy the major cities of the world were ticking away.

"I wish we could've gone with those two," Crow remarked. "It's driving me nuts not knowing what's going on up there."

"Do you think Yugo and Rin actually have a chance against Rin's dad?" Rua asked.

"There's no true way to tell," Bruno answered. "Leo Akaba's abilities are totally unknown. However, there's a high probability that he has access to both Pendulum Monsters and Dark Synchro Monsters."

"Way to make us feel better," Crow sarcastically responded.

"I'm sure they'll both be fine," Aki assured them. "Yugo and Rin have both grown a lot as duelists since this war began. I'm sure they're strong enough to defeat someone like Leo Akaba."

* * *

"My move!" Yugo declared as he drew his next card. "I summon Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

Yugo's blue metal pyramid-shaped die appeared next to his D-Wheel.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Speedrift!" Yugo announced. "When I have a Speedroid Tuner on the field, Speedrift lets me special summon a level four or lower non-Tuner Speedroid from my deck! I special summon Speedroid Horse Stilts!"

On cue, Horse Stilts materialized on the battlefield next to Tri-Eyed Dice.

"I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level four Horse Stilts for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange and transformed into three rings of green light. The rings encircled Horse Stilts and changed the mechanical steed into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a beam of white light that expanded outward. In seconds the light faded, and Yugo's cybernetic dragon emerged with a roar.

"Now that I've got Clear Wing on the field, you're toast!" Yugo declared.

"I activate my Trap, Synchro Transmutation!" Leo announced.

"Not so fast! I activate Drizzle Bell's Pendulum Effect!" Rin announced. "Once per turn, Drizzle Bell can prevent the activation of a Trap card and inflict 500 points of damage!"

Leo flew close to one of the buildings and grabbed an Action Card that was sticking to the wall. "I activate the Action Card, System Error! This card negates your card's effect for this instance!"

Just as Drizzle Bell began to wave her wand to use her effect, a bolt of lightning came down from above and shocked her, causing her to cry out. Suddenly a beam of green light shot up from the ground beneath Clear Wing and totally enveloped Clear Wing. When the light faded, Hi- Speedroid Furious Diesel RC was in Clear Wing's place.

"What the hell?" a shocked Yugo exclaimed. "What happened to Clear Wing?"

"When my opponent Synchro Summons a level seven or higher monster, Synchro Transmutation returns that monster to the opponent's Extra Deck and replaces it with another Synchro Monster they have with the same level," Leo explained. "I cannot allow you to summon that meddlesome dragon of yours, at least not yet."

Yugo gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Yeah? Well Furious Diesel RC still has more ATK than at least one of your Meklord Emperors! I use RC to attack Meklord Emperor Skiel! Nitro Demolition!"

The monster truck robot zoomed across the battlefield and struck Skiel's underside with the knuckleduster on its right fist. Skiel exploded in a blast of flames upon impact and Leo's life points went down to 5700. At the same time, Granel's ATK went down to 2850.

"That's all I can do for now," Yugo announced. "I end my turn! Rin, it's up to you now."

Rin nodded and drew her next card. "I activate Aurora Bell's effect! Aurora Bell lets me target a Windwitch monster in my Graveyard and reduce the ATK of one my opponent's monster by 200 times the level of that Windwitch in my Graveyard! I target Winter Bell and use Aurora Bell's effect to reduce Granel's ATK by 1400!"

Aurora Bell fired beams of multicolored light from her eyes down at Granel. The golden Meklord Emperor was hit in the chest and its ATK dropped to 1450.

"And now… Aurora Bell! Attack Meklord Emperor Granel!" Rin commanded. "Northern Light Flare!"

"I activate my Trap, Divine Meklord Armor!" Leo announced. "This card prevents Granel from being destroyed this turn!"

"I activate Drizzle Bell's Pendulum Effect to negate your Trap's activatetion and deal 500 points of damage!" Rin announced.

Drizzle Bell waved her wand and fired a bolt of lightning down at the large representation of Leo's Trap card. When the lightning bolt struck though, the card was perfectly intact.

"What? Why didn't that work?" Rin asked.

"I'm sorry, Rin. But no effects can be activated to prevent the activation of Divine Meklord Armor," Leo revealed.

"Maybe not… but you'll still take battle damage from Aurora Bell's attack!" Rin told him.

Aurora Bell outstretched her arms towards Granel and flapped her dazzling glowing wings. Soon after, a massive beam of multicolored light came down from above and seemingly vaporized Granel. When the light faded, Granel was intact, but Leo's life points had dropped to 3750.

"I end my turn," Rin announced. "Sorry Yugo. I gave it my best."

"Don't worry. We have him on the ropes now," Yugo told her. "His life points are now about even with ours, and his best monster is crippled. He can't last much longer."

"You really are a simpleton, boy," Leo remarked as he drew his next card. "I'm going to show you both how outmatched your truly are. First though, I activate the Spell card, Card of Sanctity, allowing each of us to replenish our hands! And now, with the Pendulum Scale still set at zero and thirteen, I can once again simultaneously summon monsters from the levels of one to twelve!"

The numbers zero and thirteen reappeared underneath Void Worker and Infinity Worker in their tubes. Soon after, the giant crystal pendulum reappeared in the sky above and began to draw another circle of light.

"Sway! Pendulum of the Gods! Draw and arc of light across the heavens!" Leo chanted. "Pendulum Summon!"

The circle of light drawn by the pendulum opened up into a portal, and a ball of crackling black energy shot down out of it like a cannon.

"Return from the Extra Deck!" Leo called out. "Meklord Dynamo Hades!"

The ball of black energy struck the track, and in moments the energy faded away to reveal the giant robot Leo had used earlier to summon his Meklord Emperors.

"Is he gonna summon a new set of Meklord Emperors?" Yugo asked.

"No… he's going to do something far worse," Rin responded.

"Very good, Rin. The Meklord Emperors were merely a diversion," Leo revealed. "A steppingstone to help set up the summoning of my deck's strongest monster. All I really needed for my strategy to work was a single level one monster."

"You mean Hades is actually a Tuner?" Yugo realized.

"Yes, but not any kind of Tuner… a Minus Tuner!" Leo revealed. "I tune the level eleven Meklord Dynamo Hades into the level one Meklord Emperor Granel for a negative ten Dark Synchro Summon!"

Hades flashed green and turned into three black stars. The stars penetrated Granel's body and converted the golden Meklord Emperor into a black transparent ghostly image of its former self. Twelve white stars were flying around inside Granel's body. Two of the stars collided into one another and suddenly blinked out of existence.

"Ancient metal god of war and destruction! Arise from your world without light and favor us with your presence!" Leo chanted. "Dark Synchro Summon! Negative ten! Meklord Deity MARDUK!"

Granel's body shattered apart as ten black stars flew out of it and formed a circle. A massive pillar of black energy shot up from the ground in the middle of the circle and expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal a large humanoid robot made of a dark-grey otherworldly metal that had a strange and sinister shimmering quality to it. On its head was a helmet with a large gold three-pointed crest on the front, and it had two red eyes and a faceplate with two rectangular holes on it arranged in a vertical line. On the robot's chest was a window with a gold frame in the shape of an infinity symbol, and seen behind the window was a crackling ball of red energy. Cut into the robot warrior's stomach was a hole that appeared to be a gaping mouth with two small fangs on the top and bottom. The robot's five-fingered hands appeared to be made of gold, and its large armored shoulder pads were sculpted in the form of dragon-like heads with red eyes and long thin horns that pointed straight back. Its box-like feet were made of gold as well, and each of its knees was covered by a piece of gold armor with a long curved spike that pointed upward.

As soon as MARDUK appeared, Leo's visible eye turned pitch-black except for a pale purple iris. "Behold! This is the power I inherited from my ancestors! The power of primeval darkness that will allow me to burn away the wickedness of the human race and reshape it into its proper form!"

"Dad! You shouldn't have summoned that monster!" Rin told him. "Its dark power will twist your mind!"

"Rin, you have it within your power to summon a monster like this as well," Leo told her. "In fact I know you've already done so once before."

"You're right, I did. And I regret that it ever happened!" Rin told him. "Dad, the Anunnaki should never have created those Dark Synchro Monsters! That kind of power only leads to destruction! The same kind of self-destruction you're trying to protect humanity from! That kind of power can't be controlled!"

"You still understand things so little, Rin. We are not as flawed as humans!" Leo declared. "We are the chosen gods of this world! Controlling this type of power is nothing to us! I activate MARDUK's effect to equip itself with a Synchro Monster and gain its ATK! The monster I use this effect on is Hi-Speedroid Furious Diesel RC!"

MARDUK's chest opened up and launched several red energy cables that quickly ensnared Furious Diesel RC. The monster truck robot was quickly converted into a ball of red energy and pulled inside the dark robot god's chest. MARDUK's ATK rose from 4000 to 6700.

"Next I activate the Spell card, Grave Armament Offering!" Leo announced. "This card allows me to take two Synchro Monsters from my opponent's Graveyard and equip them to a Meklord Deity I control! I use this card's effect to equip MARDUK with Windwitch – Winter Bell and Hi-Speedroid Model Mecha Road Block!"

MARDUK's chest opened up again and fired two beams of red light that hit the back of Yugo and Rin's D-Wheels. A ghostly image of Winter Bell was pulled from Rin's D-Wheel into MARDUK, while a ghostly version of Road Block was pulled from Yugo's D-Wheel into the robot god.

"Crap!" Yugo exclaimed. "Now that thing has 11700 ATK!"

"For the moment, yes. But don't worry. I don't intend to finish you off that quickly," Leo told them. "I activate MARDUK's other effect! Once per turn, I can send a Synchro Monster equipped to MARDUK to the Graveyard to summon a Nephilim Token with the same ATK, DEF and level as that Synchro Monster. I send Furious Diesel RC to the Graveyard to summon a level seven Nephilim Token with 2700 ATK and 2200 DEF!"

A ball of red light suddenly flew from the mouth in MARDUK's stomach and struck the ground. In moments the light faded to reveal a humanoid robot almost identical to MARDUK, but smaller and without the window on its chest or the mouth in its stomach.

"I now play the Continuous Spell, Nephilim Factory!" Leo announced. "This card lets me use MARDUK's effect to create a Nephilim Token twice per turn instead of once per turn! I send Model Mecha Road Block to the Graveyard to summon a level eight Nephilim Token with 2600 ATK and 3000 DEF!"

Another ball of red light flew out of MARDUK's stomach and struck the ground, transforming into another smaller copy of the Meklord Deity. MARDUK's ATK meanwhile had dropped to 6400.

"Finally, I activate the Spell card, MARDUK's wrath!" Leo announced. "This card destroys all Synchro Monsters on the field with an ATK lower than that of a Meklord Deity monster I control!"

MARDUK raised his right hand straight into the air and a ball of red flames formed in his metal palm. The fireball quickly expanded into a miniature sun, and when it got large enough, the robot god fired it into the air. The ball of flames exploded and caused plumes of fire to rain down all over the battlefield. Aurora Bell was hit in the chest by one of the fire plumes and exploded.

"MARDUK cannot attack during a turn when MARDUK's wrath is used," Leo announced. "But that didn't matter since he was already unable to attack due to using his effect to create Nephilim Tokens."

"I activate Aurora Bell's final effect!" Rin announced. "When Aurora Bell is destroyed and sent to the Extra Deck, I can use her to replace a Windwitch monster in one of my Pendulum Zones by shuffling the Windwitch in that zone into my deck! I use Aurora Bell to replace Drizzle Bell!"

Drizzle Bell shattered into particles of blue light inside her tube. Seconds later, the particles of light reassembled into Aurora Bell.

"With Aurora Bell in my Pendulum Zone, my Pendulum Scale is now set at one and twelve!" Rin announced.

"It makes no difference!" Leo declared. "I use the Nephilim Token made from Furious Diesel RC to attack Yugo Sakaki!"

The RC Nephilim Token fired beams of red light from its eyes at Yugo.

"I activate the effect of Tri-Eyed Dice from the Graveyard!" Yugo announced. "By banishing Tri-Eyed Dice, I can negate your monster's attack!"

As the beams of light from the Nephilim Token came in range, a triangular barrier of light appeared in front of Yugo. At about the same time though, Leo did a barrel roll and grabbed an Action Card he found on the side of the road.

"I activate the Action Card, System Error to negate your monster's effect!" Leo announced.

A bolt of lightning came down from the sky and stuck the barrier that had formed in front of Yugo, causing it to shatter like glass. The beams from the Nephilim Token then stuck Yugo in the back, causing him to cry out in pain as his life points dropped to 500.

"And now daughter… you shall learn the penalty for defying me," Leo declared. "I use the final Nephilim Token to attack Rin!"

The Nephilim Token created from Road Block fired red beams from its eyes that struck Rin in the back. Rin cried out as her life points dropped to 700.

"I shall set one card on the field and end my turn," Leo announced. "So Rin… now that it's clear that you and that boy can't defeat me, will you finally give up this foolishness?"

"Dad… no matter what you do or say, I'm never going to go along with this twisted plan of yours!" Rin declared.

"You ungrateful child!" Leo snapped. "I've given you an entire world to call your own and you throw it back my face! But if that's the way you're going to be, then fine! I will beat you until you submit to my will, as I will do to all the people of this world!"

Tears suddenly came to Rin's eyes in response to her father's words. She tried her best to hold them in, but it was no use.

"Rin, you okay?" a concerned Yugo asked.

"I'm fine," Rin responded with a weak attempt at a smile. "It's just… I've always wondered what it would be like to meet my dad, and now that I actually am… this isn't what I wanted at all."

As Rin started to cry again, Yugo glared back at Leo. "You bastard! It's bad enough that you're trying to twist the world into your own warped image, but now you're really gonna pay for making Rin cry!"

"You dare talk back to me, boy?" Leo responded. "You will regret your insolence."

"Shove it!" Yugo declared as he drew his next card. Soon after, he spotted another Action Card coming up on the side of the road and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Star Light Draw! This card lets me draw an extra card for each special summoned monster my opponent controls! Since you have three specially summoned monsters out, I get to draw three more cards!"

As Yugo pulled three more cards from his deck, two of them seemed to glow briefly with a strange crimson light. There was also a feint yet strong gust of wind that radiated out from his D-Wheel as he drew them.

"Using the Scale 3 Speedroid Passinglider and the Scale 8 Speeroid Dominobutterfly, I set the Pendulum Scale!" Yugo announced.

As soon as Yugo placed the aforementioned cards at the far ends of his duel disk blade, multicolored letters in some sort of alien writing flashed across the blade before becoming the word, "Pendulum". Tubes of an ethereal light then appeared to the left and right of Yugo's D-Wheel. Inside the tube on Yugo's right was the monster, Passinglider, which took the form of a robot piloting a large grey and blue metal glider with small headlights. The robot pilot was grey with an orange neck, and had slender arms with ball joints for the shoulders and elbows and a pair of orange ball-shaped hands. On its head was a grey helmet with a red visor and a light-blue faceplate.

Meanwhile the monster inside the tube on Yugo's left, Dominobutterfly, was an almost insect-like robot with a spherical black torso with a yellow letter D on the chest. Its right arm was black with a white hand with black fingers, while its left arm was yellow with a black hand with white fingers. Its abdomen was a long black cone with a yellow band around the base. The robot had a white head with a single round red glowing eye. Attached to its back by four yellow ball joints was a pair of white dominos and a pair of black dominos that all seemed to serve as wings.

"I activate Passinglider's Pendulum Effect!" Yugo announced. "By discarding a Speedroid Tuner monster from my hand, I can reduce Passinglider's Pendulum Scale by the level of the discarded monster! I discard Speedroid Den-Den Daiko Duke to reduce Passinglider's level from three to zero!"

As soon as Yugo put the card for Den-Den Daiko Duke into his Graveyard slot, a glowing orange number three appeared beneath Passinglider and ticked down to zero.

"Next I activate Dominobutterfly's Pendulum Effect!" Yugo announced. "By discarding a Wind monster, I can add a banished Wind monster to my hand! I discard Speedroid Ohajikid to return Tri-Eyed Dice to my hand! And now, with the Pendulum Scale set at zero and eight, I can simultaneously summon monsters from levels one to seven!"

An orange number eight appeared underneath Dominobutterfly while the number zero from before remained under Passinglider. A giant crystal pendulum appeared in the sky above and began to draw a circle of light.

"Sway! Pendulum of souls!" Yugo chanted. "Draw an arc of light across the either! Pendulum Summon!"

The circle of light drawn by the pendulum above opened up into a tunnel of blue light. A ball of red light dropped down out of the hole, followed closely by a ball of blue light, a ball of orange light, a ball of silver light, and a ball of yellow light.

"The high-speed cobalt assault racer!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Pachingo-Kart!"

The ball of red light faded away to reveal Pachingo-Kart.

"The tuner of mystery and chance!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Tri-Eyed Dice!"

The ball of blue struck the track and faded to reveal Tri-Eyed Dice.

"The dependable flying shield!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Menko!"

The ball of orange light faded away to reveal a flat rectangular object that almost resembled a carpet. It had and orange frame and visible gears on its front, with two large golden-yellow gears in the machine's center. On each corner of the machine was a pair of small dark-grey rocket boosters.

"The tuning warrior of desperate chance!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Gum Prize!"

The ball of silver light faded away to reveal Gum Prize.

"The flying boomerang of justice!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Razorang!"

The ball of yellow light faded away to reveal a robot with a red torso and a head with a silver faceplate and a large red V-shaped visor. Both of the robot's short grey arms ended with a very large pointed golden-yellow blade. The robot had a pair of small rocket boosters in its chest, and its lower half was a large curved golden-yellow blade.

Rin had since stopped crying and was looking at Yugo with an expression of utter bewilderment. "Uh… Yugo? How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Yugo asked.

"What do you mean what? You just did a Pendulum Summon!" Rin told him. "Where did you even get the Pendulum cards from?"

Yugo blinked in surprise. "Um… I have no idea. Come to think of it, Passinglider and Dominobutterfly were just regular effect monsters before. I don't know how they became Pendulum cards."

"Seriously?" Rin exclaimed.

"Yeah," Yugo answered with a goofy smile as he rubbed the back of his head. "As for how I did the summoning, I guess it was just instinct or something."

"Are you kidding me?" Rin responded. "You get on my case about me doing an Accel Synchro Summon by instinct, and then you turn around and do a Pendulum Summon the same way?"

"Hey! I don't know what to tell you!" Yugo responded with a shrug. "I just did it, okay? There's no need to make a major case about it."

"Of all the obscenities!" Leo snapped, interrupting the conversation. "Rin… did you have intercourse with that boy?"

Leo's question cause both Rin and Yugo to turn a bright shade of red. An incredibly awkward silence fell over the three for several moments.

"That… that is so not any of your business!" Rin shouted.

"There's no need for you to admit anything," Leo responded in a low voice. "The fact that the boy was able to Pendulum Summon says everything! Rin, our people have the ability to give our powers to others through extremely intimate physical contact. You must've unconsciously given that boy the ability to Pendulum Summon when the two of you… well, I really don't need to say it, do I?"

"Wait, is this the reason why Rin was able to perform an Accel Synchro Summon before?" Yugo asked.

"Um… you think so?" Rin asked, her face turning an even deeper shade of red.

"You foul loathsome little punk," Leo spoke in a hate-filled voice. "I was originally going to make your death a quick one. But now that I know that you've deflowered my daughter… I'm going to give you the slowest and most painful death imaginable!"

All the color drained from Yugo's face as he saw the look of pure rage and hatred in Leo's eye. "Oh… crap!"

"I'm going to peal the skin from your flesh and boil you alive, you wretched devil!" Leo shouted. "Before I'm done, the heavens will echo with your cries for mercy, but mercy will never come! You come to regret the day you were ever born, Yugo Sakaki!"

Yugo closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath. "Rin… clearly your dad doesn't like me."

"Gee, what was your first clue?" Rin sarcastically responded.

"At this point I have no choice but to totally kick his butt," Yugo told her.

"Yeah… I know," Rin responded. "Don't hold anything back."

"Don't worry. I won't," Yugo replied as he gave her a thumbs-up. "I tune the level three Tri-Eyed Dice into the level four Pachingo-Kart for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Tri-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Pachingo-Kart and transformed the blue racer into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward. The light quickly faded and Clear Wing emerged from it with a roar that echoed through the city.

"This is the end for you, Leo Akaba!" Yugo declared. "I'm gonna tear down your empire before it's even built!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So... about the explanation behind Yugo's sudden Pendulum Summoning ability here near the end of this chapter. I had debated with myself quite a bit about whether or not to have Yugo use his Pendulum Monsters from the manga during the planning stages of this story. For a while I was against the idea because the Speedroids don't really need the aid of Pendulum Monsters. But some of my friends kept insisting it was a good idea, and later on it occurred to me that Pendulum Monsters could theoretically help make it easier for Speedroids to pull of an Accel Synchro Summon. There was still the ultimate question though of how Yugo would get his Pendulum Monsters in this story.

I decided that it needed to be some sort of surprise miraculous event to happen during a major duel, but there still needed to be an explanation behind it. That's how I came up with the idea that Rin would be, um... "responsible," let's say, for Yugo's ability to Pendulum Summon. Having Leo deduce how Yugo became able to Pendulum Summon added an element of comedy to the whole thing that was just too good to pass up. I am a little concerned that this little twist may get some negative reaction, but I'm willing to roll the dice on it.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	42. Crimson Dragon

**Author's Note:** And now, without further delay, I bring you the conclusion to the duel of Yugo and Rin against Leo Akaba.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 42: Crimson Dragon

"You stand no chance against me, boy," Leo declared. "Now that I have MARDUK on the field, even that meddling dragon of yours won't be enough for you to win."

"That's what you think!" Yugo told him. "Get ready, because I'm about to unleash Clear Wing's full power! First I tune the level one Gum Prize into the level four Menko for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Gum Prize flashed orange and changed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Menko and transformed the flat machine into four white stars.

"Overflowing with the throb of life, soul of the sword's dance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level five! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal Yugo's red sword-shaped flying robot.

"Next I banish Den-Den Daiko Duke from the Graveyard to summon Red-Eyed Dice back to the field!" Yugo announced.

On cue, the golden metal die reappeared on the track next to Razorang.

"Because Red-Eyed Dice was summoned to the field, I use its effect to change Razorang's level from four to one!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level one Razorang for a level two Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Razorang and transformed the bladed robot into a single white star.

"Winds of divine chance gather here and now! Call forth the possibilities of a new speed's horizon!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Level two! Hi-Speedroid Ten-Eyed Dice!"

The star flashed and became a beam of white light that expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal the red ten-sided die that was Yugo's Tuner Synchro Monster.

"I activate the effect of Ten-Eyed Dice to change the level of a Wind Synchro Monster!" Yugo announced. "I change Clear Wing's level from seven to five!"

"What a futile display," Leo remarked. "Obviously you're going to perform another Accel Synchro Summon, but I know all about the monster you used against Rex and it won't help you here!"

Yugo blocked Leo out as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He began to rev his engine as he felt the cold wind hitting his face.

"Heavenly Dragon of royal blood! Take to the sky on crimson wings and ascend to your heavenly throne!" Yugo chanted. "Delta Accel!"

Suddenly Yugo and his monsters became enveloped in a stream of reddish-pink light as the seal of the Crimson Dragon on his back lit up. At the same time, Ten-Eyed Dice turned into a pair of green rings of light that encircled Clear Wing and Chanbara. As the streak of light vanished, it left a massive shockwave of white light that caused the entire fortress of Seibal to shake.

"What… what power!" an amazed Leo declared.

"That wasn't a normal Accel Synchro that Yugo just did," Rin realized.

Suddenly the streak of light reappeared behind Leo and Rin, and Yugo zoomed out of it with Passinglider and Dominobutterfly still at his side. Yugo had taken on a very dramatic transformation inside the light. His helmet had disappeared, revealing that his once blue hair had turned red and the swirl of yellow hair he had at the front had taken on a more golden hue. Yugo's eyes had turned red as well, and his riding suit had become red with gold trim and golden shoulder pads. The seal of the Crimson Dragon was on the back of Yugo's riding jacket in gold, and his D-Wheel had change from white to red.

A new dragon had also flown out of the streak of light after Yugo. The dragon greatly resembled Clear Wing, but was at least three times larger and its snout had a dark-purple color. Much of its body was covered in crimson armor, and on the sides of the dragon's head were two large red ornate horns with five thin gold bands around each one. On the back of the beast's head was a long red spike, and fitted into its forehead was a large blue gemstone. A piece of golden armor with a large round blue gem in the center covered the dragon's chest, and on its back was a pair of large red transparent wings shaped like the wings of the Crimson Dragon. Attached to the dragon's forearms was a smaller red transparent wing similar to the ones on its back, and in place of legs it had a pair of gold and red rocket boosters. Its long tail was covered in alternating pieces of red and gold armor, and on the tail's tip was a flat red spearhead-shaped blade with gold markings on both sides that almost looked like a face.

"Roar! King of all Synchro Monsters!" Yugo called out. "Crimson Wing Synchro Dragon!"

Crimson Wing roared loudly in response to his new name. The roars echoed through the sky and caused Seibal to tremble once more.

* * *

Crow and the others watching the fortress from down on the ground could hear Crimson Wing's cry echo through the air. As they tried to figure out what was going on, the dragon cards that Crow, Aki, Jack, Rua and Ruka possessed began to glow with a white light. The five pulled out their cards, and suddenly ghostly images of Black-Winged Dragon, Black Rose, Red Dragon, Life Stream and Ancient Fairy appeared before them. All five dragons began to roar in response to Crimson Wing's call.

"What the hell's going on here?" a stunned and confused Crow asked.

"The prince of Synchro Monsters has finally ascended to his throne," Ruka stated as if in a trance. "The other dragons now call out to their new king."

"She's right," Aki told them. "Yugo has somehow gotten Clear Wing to evolve to an entirely new level."

"But that shouldn't be possible!" Bruno told him. "Unless… Yugo managed to perform a Delta Accel Synchro Summon."

"Delta Accel! What's that?" Crow asked.

"It's a level beyond the kind of Accel Synchro Summon I showed you and Yugo back at the resistance base," Bruno explained. "The type of monster the technique summons is extremely powerful."

"I had no clue you even taught Yugo Delta Accel," Sherry told him.

"I didn't," Bruno responded. "There simply wasn't enough time for that before the battle with Goodwin. All I could do was show him the basics."

"So you're saying he figured it all out on his own?" a surprised Sherry asked.

"It would appear so," Bruno answered. "And if that's the case… Yugo's far more talented than I ever imagined."

"Well if Yugo really has obtained such an incredible power, than that's good for us," Jack pointed out. "It means that Leo Akaba is all but finished."

"Jack's right," Crow agreed as he looked back up at Seibal. "If Yugo really has gotten Clear Wing to evolve to an entirely new level, then things must be going really good up there."

* * *

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yugo announced.

"You go to all that trouble to summon this dragon of yours, and yet you don't attack?" Leo asked. "Granted it's not as strong as MARDUK, but you could've at least used to to attack my Nephilim Tokens."

"You're wrong. It's better for me if those Token's stay on the field," Yugo responded before turning to his green-haired partner. "I'm counting on you, Rin."

Rin smiled and nodded before drawing her next card. "I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

"You're not even going to summon a monster?" Leo asked her.

"I don't need to," Rin told him. "I know Yugo has this covered. The best I can do right now is to support him as best I can."

"So be it," Leo responded as he drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Nephilim Duplication! This card lets me summon two Nephilim Tokens identical in stats to two Tokens I already have on the field!"

Suddenly both of Leo's Nephilim robots glowed with a red light and split in two. The lights faded and there were four Nephilim Tokens on the battlefield instead of two.

"And now I shall prove to you how feeble that dragon of yours really is compared to MARDUK!" Leo declared. "I activate MARDUK's effect to equip itself with Crimson Wing Synchro Dragon!"

"And that's just what I wanted you to do!" Yugo responded with a triumphant smirk. "I activate Crimson Wing's effect! Once during either turn, when a monster effect is activated, Crimson Wing can negate that effect and destroy all other monsters on the field! Dragon Star Sanction!"

MARDUK opened its chest and fired its red energy cables at Crimson Wing. As the cables flew towards the dragon though, Crimson Wing roared and fired a massive blast of red light from the gemstone on his chest. The beam repelled the cables and blasted a massive hole in MARDUK's chest. The dragon then fired another beam of light from the gem on its forehead that went straight into the air and exploded. Five beams of red light then came down and struck all five of Leo's monsters, causing them to explode.

"Crimson Wing gains 500 ATK for each monster destroyed by his effect until the end of my opponent's next turn!" Yugo announced. "Since five monsters were destroyed, Crimson Wing's ATK goes up from 4000 to 6500!"

"Impressive," Leo praised. "But not good enough!"

Suddenly a massive pillar of crackling black energy shot up from the ground behind Leo. The energy force quickly subsided to reveal MARDUK. Not only was the robot god fully repaired, he had grown to about Crimson Wing's size and his eyes were glowing bright red.

"When MARDUK is destroyed by a card effect, I can summon him back to the field with an ATK equal to that of the highest-level monster on the field!" Leo announced. "Meaning he now also now has an ATK of 6500! This change in MARDUK's ATK remains until the end of my opponent's next turn."

"The perfect effect to counter Crimson Wing," an amazed Rin quietly remarked.

"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn," Leo announced. "Well, it seems that MARDUK is more than a match for your so-called King of all Synchro Monsters."

"We'll see about that!" Yugo declared as he drew his next card. "I use Crimson Wing to attack MARDUK!"

"What? But both our monsters will be destroyed!" Leo pointed out.

"That's what you think! When Crimson Wing battles a monster with a level equal to or lower than his own, the ATK of that monster is cut in half during the battle!" Yugo revealed. "Crimson Wing! Attack MARDUK and end this once and for all! Crimson Shooting Star Edge!"

Crimson Wing roared and took off high into the star-filled sky, leaving a trial of crimson light in his wake. When he got high enough, the dragon turned and shot down towards MARDUK like a glowing red meteor.

"I activate my Trap, MARDUK Reflector!" Leo announced as Crimson Wing came closer to his target. "When a Meklord Deity monster I control is attacked, this card raises my monster's ATK by an amount equal to the attacking monster's! Meaning that during this battle, MARDUK's attack jumps from 3250 to 9750!"

"Then at this moment, I activate a Trap of my own!" Yugo announced. "Final Resist Clash!"

The illustration of Yugo's Trap showed a boy with blue hair piloting a small red robot with a face on the front doing battle with a large muscular bald man with a black goatee, while a girl with very short white hair watched them. Crimson Wing struck his target, creating a massive explosion of red light. When the light faded, Crimson Wing and MARDUK were clashing with one another, their hands pushing against each other like the two fighters in the illustration of Yugo's Trap.

"When a monster of mine battles an opponent's monster with a higher ATK, Final Resist Clash reduces the ATK of that monster by an amount equal to my monster's DEF during that battle!" Yugo announced. "Which means MARDUK now loses 3500 ATK points!"

As Crimson Wing and MARDUK continued to fight, the dragon stabbed the dark robot god in the back with blade at the end of his long tail. The blow caused MARDUK's ATK to drop to 6250.

"An excellent but still useless move!" Leo declared. "I activate the Trap card known as Trap Echo! This card copies the effect of a Trap card just used! Which means I use the effect of your Final Resist Clash to lower your dragon's ATK by MARDUK's 4000 DEF points!"

MARDUK suddenly kneed Crimson Wing in the stomach, wounding the dragon with the golden armored spike on his right knee. The wound caused Crimson Wing's ATK to drop all the way to 2500.

"This time you're as good as dead, boy!" Leo declared.

"Not so fast! I activate my own Trap card, Enchanted Battle Mirror!" Rin announced. "When the ATK of an attacking monster has been lowered by a card effect, Enchanted Battle Mirror swaps the ATK of that monster and its target during that battle!"

Crimson Wing recovered from his wound and roared as his ATK went up to 6250 while MARDUK's ATK dropped to 2500. With his tail still stuck in MARDUK's back, Crimson Wing used it to slam the robot god hard into the ground. The dragon then pulled his blade out of MARDUK's back and began to fly into the air, leaving a trial of red light in his wake. Once Crimson Wing got high enough, the dragon came back down towards MARDUK at full speed.

At that moment, Leo found an Action Card clinging to the side of one of the buildings and grabbed it. "I activate the Action Card, Mass Extinction Meteor! During battle, this card lets me destroy one monster on the field and inflict 1000 points of damage to all players!"

As Crimson Wing came ever closer to his target fiery blue meteor suddenly shot forth from the heavens towards the dragon at an angle. It seemed like the meteor would hit its target before Crimson Wing could get to MARDUK.

"I activate Aurora Bell's Pendulum Effect!" Rin announced. "Once during any player's turn, when a Wind Synchro Monster would be destroyed by a card effect, Aurora Bel negates that effect and boosts the ATK of the monster that would've been destroyed by 1000 until the end of the opponent's next turn!"

The giant bell that was Aurora Bell's base began to chime, sending sound waves that radiated across the field. The waves struck the meteor, causing it to shatter apart. At the same time, Crimson Wing roared as his ATK rose to 7250. At last, Crimson Wing struck MARDUK, creating a massive explosion of crimson light that washed out the entire battlefield. Leo cried out as he was knocked from his flying D-Wheel and his life points dropped from 3750 to zero. Leo's aircraft crashed into one of the nearby buildings, and the impact from Crimson Wing's attack also caused Seibal to tremble again.

When the light finally cleared, Seibal had stopped shaking and the sky had returned to normal. All the monsters that had been on the battlefield had vanished and Yugo's had returned to his original form.

"Couldn't have done it without you, Rin," Yugo told her as he gave her a wink and a thumbs-up.

Meanwhile a few feet away, Leo was now on his knees. "How… how could this be? I had the power of the gods, and I was still defeated."

"You still don't get it, do ya?" Yugo spoke as he dismounted his D-Wheel and walked towards him. "It's like Rin said before, you're not a god just because you were descended from a race of ancient aliens. And the Anunnaki weren't gods either. In fact, they were probably just as bad as humans."

"He's right, dad," Rin told him as she came over. "You proved that yourself when you summoned MARDUK. You became so consumed by its power that you were willing to kill anyone who defied you… even me. That darkness inside you is the same darkness that you and Rex Goodwin thought would lead humanity to self-destruction, and it's the same darkness that ultimately destroyed the Anunnaki."

"But… the human race still needs a higher power to guide it," Leo insisted. "Otherwise it will continue down the same path to destruction that it's always been on. I'm certain that unless I act, Neo Domino will go back to the same corrupt system that existed before."

"You're wrong about that," Yugo told him. "We humans may be messed up, but we learn from our mistakes too. And the fact is Neo Domino can never go back to the way it was before. That's the one good thing that's come out of all this."

Suddenly Seibal began to tremble again, though it lasted for only a few moments.

"Something's wrong, isn't it?" Rin realized.

"It's the engines," Leo realized as he got back to his feet. "They've become unstable due to the summoning of Crimson Wing and the resulting battle between it and MARDUK."

The fortress began to shake again, and this tremor lasted a little longer than the last one. Some of the buildings of the ancient city began to crack under the strain.

"This is bad. At this rate, the engines will go critical and explode!" Leo told them. "If that were to happen, this planet would be severely damaged."

"Can't you do anything to fix it?" Yugo asked.

"I'm afraid there's only one thing I can do," Leo told them as he looked towards his castle. After a moment, he looked back at Rin and smiled. "Rin, please know how incredibly sorry for everything I've done. But I'm going to make up for it now by saving this planet. It's the very least I can do."

"Dad, what're you…?" Rin began to ask.

Before she could finish, Leo put a hand on her shoulder. "You and that boy… after everything I've seen, I'm certain that you two can lead the human race towards a much brighter future than anything I could've led them to."

"You're starting to scare me a little dad," Rin told him.

"Farewell, my daughter," Leo told her. "I wish you all the happiness in the world."

Leo snapped his fingers, and suddenly both Rin and Yugo became enveloped in a white light. When the light faded, the couple and their D-Wheels were outside the pyramid a few feet away from where Crow and the others were standing. By that time, Shinji, Matsuri, Anastasia and all of Team Unicorn had emerged form the pyramid.

"Guys, what happened?" Crow asked the two.

"Well we beat Rin's dad, but now Seibal's gonna explode," Yugo answered.

"That's very bad!" Bruno told them. "If Seibal does explode, the damage would be catastrophic!"

"It seemed like my dad was going to do something about it," Rin told them. "But I'm not sure…"

Suddenly Seibal vanished with a flash of greenish-yellow light. A few seconds later, the group saw what appeared to be an exploding star in the sky that blinked out of existence as soon as it appeared. Everyone quickly figured out what the star was.

Horrified, Rin brought her hands to her mouth as tears came to her eyes. "No… It can't be."

Yugo put his arm around her. "I'm real sorry, Rin."

"The only thing Leo Akaba could do was move the fortress to a location in space a safe distance from Earth," Bruno deduced. "He sacrificed his life to save millions."

As everyone continued looking at the spot where Seibal had exploded, another speck of blue light appeared. The light kept coming closer and closer, and it soon became clear that they were looking at a small meteor.

"What the hell? Bruno, I thought you said we were safe!" Crow explained.

"A piece of debris must've broken off from Seibal and thrown towards our location!" Bruno assumed. "Everyone scatter!"

Everyone but Aki did as Bruno said and dove for some sort of cover. Aki remained frozen where she was as if mesmerized by the space rock as it hurtled closer and closer. About the same time right outside the city limits, a streak of red light burst from nowhere and zoomed down the street, creating a massive gust of wind and shattering the windows of buildings in its wake. In a matter of seconds, the streak made it to the pyramid just as the space rock was about to hit Aki's position. At the very last moment, the streak swept up Aki and caused the space debris to hit the base of the pyramid.

The rock ended up being slightly bigger than a soccer ball, but left a massive dent in the fortress. Meanwhile, everyone looked to see what had happened to Aki and saw her in the arms of a man in a distinctive red and white D-Wheel parked only a few feet away. The rider had on a red helmet and a blue jacket with orange gem-like shoulder pads.

"You okay?" the mysterious rider asked Aki.

Aki was blushing as he looked up into the rider's eyes through the black visor of his helmet. "Um… I think so."

"Good," the rider replied. "Uh… could you get down now? I don't mind holding you like this, but it makes it kinda hard for me to do certain things."

"Oh! Of course," Aki responded.

Aki lowered her feet onto the ground and got off. As the redheaded psychic stepped away, the rider dismounted and removed his helmet, revealing black crab-shaped hair with yellow highlights. He also had a very distinctive yellow mark on his cheek. Yugo, Rin, Jack and Crow instantly recognized who the mysterious rider was.

"No way…" Yugo spoke. "Yusei!"

"Hi Yugo," Yusei responded. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

Aki walked over to where an amazed Crow was standing. "So that's your old friend, Yusei Fudo?"

"Yep. It sure is," Crow answered. "Never thought I'd see him again."

"You never mentioned he was so handsome," Aki remarked.

"Nope, I sure didn't," Crow absent-mindedly responded. "Wait, what?"

"Nothing!" Aki innocently replied as she turned away with a blush.

"Who the hell is this loser?" a jealous Breo asked with a clenched fist.

"I will rip out his spine and use it as belt!" an equally jealous Anastasia declared.

"Yusei!" Jack called.

"Hi Jack," Yusei responded. "Guess I've got some explaining to…"

Before Yusei could finish, Jack stormed over and punched him in the face. The sudden attack knocked Yusei off his feet and into his D-Wheel.

"That's for abandoning our match years ago!" Jack told him. "You walk away from the battle that would've settled things between us, and you dare show your face to me now?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Yusei responded as he got back to his feet. "I had no intention of abandoning our duel like that, but something came up."

"We know!" Yugo told him. "We learned the whole thing from Rex and Rudger Goodwin."

"I see," Yusei responded as he looked around the city. "I guess Goodwin ended up doing a lot of damage while I was gone, huh?"

"He managed to take over most of the planet," Crow told him. "In the end, we managed to take it back though."

"Yusei, Goodwin told us that he cast you into some kind of dimensional void and that you couldn't come back," Rin interjected.

"I'm sure that was his intention, but I ended up somewhere totally different," Yusei revealed. "I wound up in a world very much like this one; an alternate version of Earth where a lot of things developed differently. Unfortunately, there were some thing in that other world that kept me from returning, but I was able to finally come back here using my D-Wheel. Oh! That reminds me, I should probably do a systems check just to be safe."

With that, Yusei turned to his D-Wheel and opened up a hatch on the back of it. Crow came over and peeked at what Yusei was doing and saw something written on one of the parts inside the vehicle.

"LEO Corp? What's that?" Crow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's a company owned by a friend of mine in that other world," Yusei explained. "He helped me make some modifications to my D-Wheel to boost its performance. In fact, the engine in my D-Wheel has become the prototype of the engine that's going to be used in a new line of D-Wheels that his company is going to start producing. It's amazing, really… before I came, the concept of turbo duels didn't exist in that world."

"Well these modifications you're talking about seem to work amazingly well," Bruno remarked. "If you're willing Yusei, I'd like very much to take a closer look at them."

"Fine with me," Yusei agreed as he finally closed the hatch. "Well, everything seems to be working okay, but I should probably do a much more in-depth check later."

"Yusei," Yugo spoke. "I'm really happy you're back. This is one of the best things to happen to me in a long time."

"Just so you know, Yusei. Yugo and Rin are the reason why we were able to take down Iliaster," Crow informed him. "Plus Jack even admitted that Yugo is one of the few people he considers a true rival."

Yusei went over and put a hand on Yugo's shoulder. "Sounds like you've done pretty well for yourself. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Yugo replied with a large grin. "So, you aren't planning on going anywhere again, are you?"

"Not for a while," Yusei answered. "I've been away from this city for too long. Besides, I've got some unfinished business here I need to take care of."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The design of Crimson Wing Synchro Dragon was based on a mixture of Clear Wing's original design and the evolved form of the evil Crimson Dragon in the 5D's manga. I had come up with the concept for Crimson Wing very early in the story, but I hadn't totally figured out its effects until recently. As for the form Yugo took after summoning Crimson Wing, I got the idea for that from watching _Dragon Ball Super_. Somehow seeing Goku's original super saiyen red form caused me to picture how Yugo would look with red hair, and the whole concept of his "crimson form" in this story just crystalized from that point. Yugo's form didn't really add much to the duel, but I thought it'd still look cool at the very least.

The other thing I should mention is that the illustration of Yugo's Final Resist Clash Trap card is a reference to _Gurren Lagann_. I think many of you reading can figure out which part of the series that the illustration references. It seemed like a very appropriate reference to make because of the characters involved in the duel.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the conclusion to the final battle, but this this story isn't over yet. There are still three chapters to go, and the final two will have one last duel. So until then, stay tuned.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	43. After the Crisis

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 43: After the Crisis

Six months had gone by since Iliaster had fallen, and in that time Neo Domino had gone through some sweeping changes. Those who had been assimilated into the Iliaster collective had more or less recovered and settled into new lives, and the division between the Tops and the Commons was no more. The rest of the world had mostly recovered from the reign of Iliaster as well. Though like with Neo Domino, there were some scars in those parts of the world that Rex Goodwin and his mechanical collective had conquered. It was the beginning of a new era for both Neo Domino and the world itself.

During the second month of the city's recovery, Jack had challenged Yusei to a duel to finally settle their old rivalry. Jack was still officially recognized as the city's champion at the time, so the duel ended up being a battle for that title. Practically the entire city watched Yusei and Jack's duel, and when it was all over, Yusei had taken his place as the city's new champion. After Yusei's victory, Turbo Duels had started to return to being the sport they were in the beginning. In the months that followed, small tournaments began to break out all throughout the city.

Yugo and Rin of course took part in those tournaments, and over time they had each become known as two of the city's most powerful young duelists. Of course Yugo and Rin had already gained a major reputation as being the ones who slew Iliaster. Practically everyone in the city knew of the couple's victories over Rex Goodwin and Leo Akaba. The two had become the city's heroes, and were held as highly as Yusei and Jack by the fans. Yet while Yugo and Rin had gained great fame, there was something about the way they both performed as duelists that troubled Yusei a bit.

One afternoon, Yusei had gone to one of the smaller tournaments to watch Yugo compete. After several duels, Yugo had made it to the final round effortlessly.

"And now we come to our final match!" the announcer declared. "Yugo Sakaki verses Max Harper!"

The duelist who pulled up next to Yugo on the starting line of the track was a young man on a red D-Wheel wearing a red and white riding suit and a white helmet with a red stripe down the center.

"So, I hear you're one of this city's legendary heroes," Max spoke. "Word is you're tough, but you've never gone up against someone as strong as me. When this duel is over, everyone's gonna be talking about the great Max Harper!"

"Let's just get this over with," Yugo responded.

"And now we begin the final match!" the announcer declared. "Action Field on! Crossover Accel!"

An explosion of white light went off at the top of the stadium, and several Action Cards rained down upon the track. As soon as the timer ticked to zero, both Yugo and Max took off down the track at top speed. Yugo easily took the first corner.

"I summon Speedroid Den-Den Daiko Duke in Defense Mode!" Yugo announced.

On cue, the Speedroid nobleman materialized on the track beside Yugo's D-Wheel.

"That ends my turn!" Yugo announced.

"Get ready to have your rear end handed to you on a silver platter!" Max declared as he drew his first card. "I summon Mystery Shell Dragon in Attack Mode!"

Materializing next to Max's D-Wheel was an odd-looking creature that seemed to be made of some sort of smooth black crystal. The creature appeared almost dragon-like, with a tick tail covered in spikes and a small head with six red eye, mandibles, and two small horns.

"I attack Den-Den Daiko Duke with Mystery Shell Dragon!" Max announced. "Nightmare Mind Shocker!"

Mystery Shell Dragon fired bolts of red lightning from its eyes at Yugo's monster. Up ahead, Yugo spotted an Action Card on the side of the track and grabbed it. As he looked at the card though, Den-Den Daiko Duke was struck in the chest and shattered into particles of light.

"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn!" Max announced. "Looks like your reputation was pretty exaggerated, hero."

Yugo drew his first card. "Since I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Speedroid Terrortop!"

Yugo's faithful red train of mechanical tops materialized next to his D-Wheel.

"I use Terrortop's effect to add Speedroid Taketomborg to my hand!" Yugo announced. "Next I summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice in Attack Mode!"

The large golden die appeared on the track next to Terrortop.

"Because Red-Eyed Dice was just summoned, I use its effect to change Terrortop's level from three to four!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level four Terrortop for a level five Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Terrortop and transformed it into four white stars.

"Overflowing with the throb of life, soul of the sword's dance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Level five! Hi-Speedroid Chanbara!"

The stars flashed into a horizontal beam of white light that expanded outward. Moments later the light faded to reveal Yugo's sword-shaped assault robot.

"Because I have a Wind monster on the field, I can special summon Speedroid Taketomborg from my hand!" Yugo announced.

Taketomborg materialized next to Chanbara in its helicopter mode before transforming to its robot mode.

"Next, I banish Den-Den Daiko Duke to summon Red-Eyed Dice back from the Graveyard!" Yugo announced.

Red-Eyed Dice reappeared on the battlefield next to Taketombog.

"Since Red-Eyed Dice was summoned again, I use its effect to change Taketomborg's level from three to six!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level six Taketomborg for a level seven Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice once again flashed orange and changed into a single green ring of light. The ring encircled Taketomborg and transformed the bug-eyed robot into six white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal beam of light that expanded outward. In moments, the light faded and Clear Wing emerged with a roar. Max went pale and gulped when he saw the cybernetic dragon.

"I attack Mystery Shell Dragon with Chanbara!" Yugo announced. "And when Chanbara attacks, he gains 200 ATK!"

Max started to panic as Chanbara flew towards his monster. "I, uh… I activate my Trap, Mirror Force!"

"I activate the Action Card I found earlier, Divine Denial!" Yugo announced. "This card negates the activation of your Mirror Force!"

A bolt of lightning came down and struck the large version of Max's Mirror Force card, burning it totally to ash. A second later, Canbara rammed straight into Mystery Shell Dragon and sliced the alien organism in two. Both halves of Mystery Shell Dragon shattered into particles of gold light and Max's life points dropped to 3800.

"Chanbara can make two attacks per turn!" Yugo announced. "Chanbara, attack him directly! High-Speed Slasher!"

Chanbara turned around for another pass and flew past Max, slicing into him with one of the swords in his hand as he went by. Upon being hit, Max's life points dropped from 3800 to 1400.

"Clear Wing! Attack him directly and end this!" Yugo commanded. "Whirlwind Helldive Slasher!"

Clear Wing roared as he soared up into the sky and became shrouded in a twister of green wind. Max panicked and attempted to grab an Action Card he saw up ahead, but the cybernetic dragon came down from above and struck him in the back. The attack caused Max's D-Wheel to swerve and his life points to drop from 1400 to zero. With the duel over, Yugo's monsters vanished from the field.

"And the winner of the North District Tournament is… Yugo Sakaki!" the announcer declared.

The audience members cheered at the declaration of Yugo's victory. A few moments later, Yugo was on the stage inside the arena accepting a large gold trophy. Yugo smiled and waved at the audience for a few moments before getting back his D-Wheel and driving back towards the pit area. Yusei watched Yugo leave with a serious expression on his face.

"Yugo was really on fire in this tournament, huh?" a familiar voice remarked. Yusei looked and saw Crow walking towards him. "That Harper guy really was kind of a lame duelist."

"He wasn't bad," Yusei responded.

"What's with you? I'd think you'd be happy that Yugo won," Crow assumed.

"It's the way he won that bothers me," Yusei told him. "In every duel he's fought, Yugo's attacks have been fast and direct, like he's trying to get it all over with as quickly as possible. I've noticed Rin doing the same thing."

"So? What's the big deal?" Crow asked. "Isn't winning the whole point?"

"You really are a simpleton, birdbrain," a familiar voice remarked. Yusei and Crow looked to see Jack coming towards them. "The problem is that Yugo's duels lack passion. There's no thrill or excitement to them."

"Jack's right. Both Rin and Yugo are fighting like each duel is a life or death battle," Yusei explained. "It's like they're not enjoying themselves anymore."

"I don't know. I think you guys are making a big deal outta nothing," Crow told them.

"You would say that. You've become just as bad as Yugo and Rin are now," Jack told the redhead.

"What's that mean?" Crow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You've been in charge of the resistance for so long that you've forgotten your duelist instincts," Jack answered.

"Hey! Are you saying that I'm weak or something?" Crow asked.

"He's saying that you've become too practical," Yusei explained.

"Yeah? Well I have to be!" Crow told them. "The war may be over, but I've still got a bunch of kids to look after. And on that note, I still have some shopping to do so that the little guys can eat tonight. Now, if you guy will excuse me."

With that, Crow walked off and merged into the still large crowd of other spectators leaving the arena.

"That idiot's more far gone than I thought," Jack remarked.

"Crow's attitude about dueling seems to be a pretty common one," Yusei responded. "Everyone in this city has become practical."

"I know what you mean. All of the duels I've seen in this city lack the same passion that's missing from Yugo and Rin's duels," Jack noted.

"It's all because of that war," Yusei declared. "Dueling became such a life and death struggle to everyone that a lot of people have forgotten that they were originally supposed to be fun. That old spirit seems to be coming back, but… I'm worried that some people like Yugo, Rin and Crow may be too far gone."

"So, what're you going to do about it then?" Jack asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Yusei answered. "But I need to figure out some kind of solution, and soon."

* * *

During the six-month reconstruction of the city, Yugo and Rin had wound up with a place in the Tops. It was a small house compared to many of the other mansions in what was once the richest part of Neo Domino, but it was still very nice. The house's second story had multiple bedrooms, and a large and well-equipped garage. And because of their status as the city's heroes, Yugo and Rin had pretty much gotten the place for nothing. It was the kind of place that they had always dreamed of living in during their old life in the Commons.

Yugo had just gotten home from his victory against Max Harper. He placed his new trophy on the coffee table before heading for the dining room. Yugo could smell whatever Rin was cooking in the kitchen. As he entered the dining room, he saw Rin at work setting the table.

"Hi Yugo!" Rin greeted with a smile as she saw Yugo come in. "Dinner will be ready in just a little bit."

"Great! I'm starved," Yugo declared as he sat down at the table. "Oh, I won that tournament I was in today."

"That's great," Rin replied. "Sorry I couldn't watch you duel, but I had some stuff to take care of."

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Yugo went to go answer it while Rin finished setting the table. When he opened the door, he saw Ruka, Rua and Hitomi before him.

"Hi Yugo," Rua spoke. "Rin invited us all over for dinner tonight."

"Oh. That explains the three other places at the table," Yugo realized.

"I hope it's okay I invited them, Yugo!" Rin called from the dining room.

"Yeah. That's no problem at all," Yugo replied. "Come on in, guys."

With that, Yugo followed the kids back to the dining room. They all sat down as Rin ducked back into the kitchen to put the finishing touches on dinner.

"So, did you guys see me take part in the North District Tournament today?" Yugo asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry Yugo. I forgot that you were even in a tournament today," Hitomi told him.

"Ruka and I watched the first few rounds of it, but got tired of it after a while," Rua revealed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but it was kinda boring."

"Seriously?" Yugo asked.

"It's not your fault, Yugo," Ruka assured him. "It's just that a lot of your opponents seemed kina weak. I mean you finished them off so quickly."

"Yeah. Those duels were nothing compared to the one you fought against Jack years ago," Rua added.

"Dinner's ready, guys!" Rin informed them as she started carrying in the food.

As Rin put out dinner, Yugo found himself troubled by the kids' attitude. He couldn't figure out why they seemed to find his duels so boring. Yugo started to wonder if there was something very wrong with the way he dueled.

* * *

During the six months of the reconstruction, Yusei and Aki had become romantically involved with one another. The two had started out as good friends after Yusei had saved Aki from that chunk of Seibal that had fallen from the sky. There was also a strong physical attraction between the two from the start, though they were quite shy about it in the beginning. Then one day, Aki had worked up the courage to ask Yusei out on a date, which led to another date and then another, and in a short time the two of them had become incredibly close. It was as if the two were destined for one another.

That same evening Yugo and Rin were having Hitomi and the twins over for dinner, Yusei and Aki were having dinner were having dinner at one of the finest restaurants in the Tops. The two of them had gotten a table next to the window, giving them a breathtaking view of the city. Yusei was wearing a black jacket with a grey shirt and black slacks, while Aki had on a red strapless dress that showed off her every curve. As the dinner came close to the end, Yusei found himself looking out at the city.

"Yusei? Are you listening to me?" Aki spoke, getting his attention.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I've got a lot on my mind," Yusei told her. "I'm mostly worried about Yugo and Rin."

"You really care about those two a lot, huh?" Aki responded.

"They're like the little brother and sister I never had," Yusei replied. "I'm worried that they've both forgotten what dueling is truly about."

"Well, you can't blame them. Those two have been through a lot," Aki pointed out. "There's what Iliaster did to Yugo by making him into Aten, and then there's everything Rin went through with her father and learning that she was descended from the Anunnaki."

"I know. But all that doesn't mean that they can't stop having fun," Yusei responded. "Sure things can never go back to the way they were, but that doesn't mean that they have go about every duel like it's a life or death battle. I wish there was some way I could get Yugo and everyone in this city to see how exciting duels can be."

"Then why not just show them?" Aki suggested. "Surly you can figure out how to do that."

A smile came to Yusei's face. "Yeah. You're right! Thanks Aki. That helps a lot. I think I know just what to do now."

* * *

Yugo had competed in the Eastern District Tournament and once again won first place. Everyone cheered as Yugo received the first place trophy. Just as Yugo was about to walk off the stage, the announcer came up to him.

"Yugo Sakaki! You've won practically every district tournament in this city at least once," the announcer spoke. "What do you plan to do next?"

Everyone looked at Yugo expectantly as the announcer held the microphone out to him. Yugo found that he was very unsure about what to say.

"Yugo!" a familiar voice called from the stands. A spotlight came down to show Yusei standing in the bleachers with his own microphone. "As champion of this city, I've come to challenge you to a duel! Our battle will be in two days and use this entire city as its battleground! I give you this challenge not as a mentor or a friend, but as a rival I respect. I want you to show me exactly what you're made of!"

Yugo was totally stunned. He had never imagined that Yusei would suddenly challenge him. A grin formed on his face as a strange but familiar feeling started to come over him.

Without another second's delay, Yugo grabbed the microphone from the announcer. "You're on, Yusei! And I won't hold anything back!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Sorry if this latest chapter wasn't that good. I felt like I needed a small interlude to help set up the duel between Yugo and Yusei. In the next chapter we'll have the start of this story's final duel, so stay tuned.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	44. What Was Forgotten

**Author's Note:** And now I bring you Part 1 of the final duel of this story.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 44: What Was Forgotten

Hundreds of people in the city had gathered at the starting point of Yugo and Yusei's duel, the old arena where the Friendship Cup was once held. Those who could not get into the arena were forced to be content with watching the duel from home on T.V. or whatever digital devices they had access to. Everyone was excited to see the champion of Neo Domino duel one of the city's heroes. Rin, Aki, Crow, Jack and almost all of the other major members of the resistance had gotten seats in the stadium's skybox to watch. The duel was only a few minutes away from starting.

"I still can't believe that Yusei just challenged Yugo out of the blue like that," Rin declared. "I wonder what his reason was."

"You'll find out as this duel goes on," Jack told her. "Yusei is doing Yugo a favor, and you as well."

Suddenly a giant hologram of Carly appeared over the stadium. She had on a burgundy blazer with a white blouse and a burgundy skirt that ended just above her knees. A glittering gold and silver microphone was in the reporter's hand.

 _"Good afternoon Neo Domino!"_ Carly spoke. _"It is with great honor that I, Carly Nagisa, your intrepid star reporter will be acting as MC for this duel!"_

"I still don't get why I didn't land the MC job," Matsuri remarked in the skybox. "And what the heck was Carly thinking with that outfit? She should be wearing something a little more stylish, not something you'd wear to a business meeting."

 _"And now, let's give it up for our first competitor!"_ Carly announced. _"Our city's current champion, phantom shooting star Yusei Fudo!"_

On cue, Yusei's D-Wheel zoomed out of the pit area and took its place at the starting line. Yusei waved to the crowd as they cheered his name.

 _"Next up is a young duelist who really needs no introduction!"_ Carly announced. _"One of this city's two great saviors, Yugo Sakaki!"_

Yugo's D-Wheel zoomed out of the pit and pulled up to the starting line next to Yusei. Unlike Yusei, Yugo didn't respond to the crowd very much.

"Yugo, you're way too wound up," Yusei told him. "Try to relax a little."

"Yusei… why did you challenge me to this duel?" Yugo asked. "I mean I'm trilled and all, but it just came outta nowhere."

"I'm doing this because there's something important that you've forgotten," Yusei told him. "Not just you, but Rin, Crow, and a lot of other people as well. I'm going to use this duel to remind you all of what that something is."

 _"And now that our two competitors are here, let's get this party started!"_ Carly announced. _"Action Field on! Crossover Accel!"_

An explosion of white light went off in the sky above and rained cards down all over the city. Yusei and Yugo revved their engines as the starting timer for the duel ticked away. When they got the green light, they both tore down the track at top speed towards the door that would take them onto the highway. Inside the tunnel leading out to the stadium, the two of them were neck and neck. At the very last second though, Yusei pulled ahead and shot out of the tunnel first.

 _"And Yusei Fudo takes the lead!"_ Carly announced. _"The first turn is his!"_

"Here we go!" Yusei declared. "I set one card on the field. Then I summon Turtle Racer in Defense Mode!"

Appearing on the highway beside Yusei's D-Wheel was a small green car resembling a turtle shell. It had four large black tires and an exposed chrome engine on the back. A red number two was pained on both sides of the car and on the hexagonal facet on top of the shell.

"That ends my turn!" Yusei announced.

Yugo drew his first card. "Since I have no monsters on the field, I special summon Terrortop from my hand!"

Yugo's trusty train of mechanical red tops materialized on the highway besides his D-Wheel.

"Using Terrortop's effect, I add Speedroid Den-Den Daiko Duke to my hand!" Yugo announced. "Next I summon Den-Den Daiko Duke in Attack Mode!"

On cue, the Speedroid nobleman appeared on the battlefield next to Terrortop.

"I tune the level three Den-Den Daiko Duke into the level three Terrortop for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Den-Den Daiko Duke played the drum on his staff a few times before flashing orange and changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Terrotop and transformed it into three white stars.

"Magical sword in the form of a cross! Use your power to rend all enemies!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level six! Hi-Speedroid Kendama!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of white light that shot down the highway and expanded outward. In moments the light faded to reveal Yugo's blue cross-shaped robotic starship.

"Kendama can inflict piercing damage when it destroys a monster in Defense Mode!" Yugo announced. "And since Turtle Racer only has 1000 DEF, you're going to take a big hit from this next attack! Kendama! Blue Turtle Racer Away! High-Speed Lance!"

Kendama zoomed across the battlefield and struck Turtle Racer in the engine with the point of its lance. The turtle-like car exploded on impact in a blast of flames. When the smoke cleared though, Yusei's life points were untouched.

"What the… why didn't you lose any life points?" a stunned Yugo asked.

"I activated my Trap, Defense Draw!" Yusei announced. "This trap cancels out any battle damage I would've taken from an enemy attack and lets me draw an extra card. It's going to take a lot more than that to bring me down."

Yugo scowled. "I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

* * *

Rin and the others continued to watch the duel from the skybox on the stadium's big screen. The audience was loudly cheering Yusei's countermove to Yugo's attack.

"Boy! Yusei really is good," Rua remarked. "He not only blocked the damage from Yugo's attack, but he got an extra card too."

"Yugo's started to get soft fighting all of those weaklings in those miniature tournaments," Jack spoke. "This is one of the reasons Yusei challenged him."

"Yusei's good. We all knew that," Rin spoke. "But I'm suddenly not so sure Yugo can win this."

"You know you don't need to be so worried, Rin," Aki told her. "It's not like there's anything truly serious on the line here."

"Huh? Uh… yeah, I know that," Rin responded.

"You sure?" Aki asked. "It's not like Yugo is dueling one of Iliaster's security droids or anyone truly dangerous."

"I know all that," Rin told her. "It's just… I don't know. I guess I can't help but feel on edge is all."

* * *

Yusei drew his next card. "Come to think of it Yugo, I haven't told you or Rin very much about that other world I ended up in when I went to face Rex Goodwin."

"No. I guess not," Yugo replied. "But why bring that up now?"

"Because I met some people there who were pretty special," Yusei responded. "One of those people was a young man who was a lot like you. He and his friends helped to show me a way of dueling that we never really saw in this city because of how competitive this place was. I mean I already understood it a bit. You, me, Jack, Crow and Rin… we all got into dueling originally for the thrill. But this other friend of mine showed me how dueling can entertain people and reach their hearts, and now I'm going to share those teachings with you and everyone else in this city."

"I'm not sure I get what you're talking about," Yugo responded.

"You will soon enough," Yusei told him. "I summon Junk Synchron in Attack Mode!"

Materializing besides Yusei's D-Wheel was a short humanoid figure with a round off-white face with two beady eyes behind a pair of large round orange glasses. A long white scarf was wrapped around his neck, and atop his head was a large orange engineer's cap. His limbs and most of his torso seemed to be mechanical, and he had thick pieces of orange armor covering his chest, shoulders and wrists. A large grey engine was on the creature's back, and on his feet were a pair of thick metal orange boots that went up to his knees.

"When Junk Synchron has been normal summoned, I can special summon a level two or lower monster from the Graveyard with in Defense Mode with its effects negated!" Yusei announced. "I summon Turtle Racer back to the field!"

On cue, Turtle Racer reappeared on the highway next to Junk Synchron.

"I tune the level three Junk Synchron into the level two Turtle Racer for a level five Synchro Summon!" Yusei announced.

Junk Synchron pulled a ripcord built into his chest armor, firing up the engine on his back and causing him to transform into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Turtle Racer and transformed the miniature car into two white stars.

"Clustering hopes will come together and become an eternal speed's horizon! Create the path that light shines upon!" Yusei chanted. "Synchro Summon! Dash! Tuner Synchro! Junk Speedster!"

The stars flashed and became a bolt of yellow lightning that shot down the highway and expanded outward. In moments, the energy subsided to reveal a mechanical-looking warrior clad in red and yellow armor. He had a yellow face with glowing red goggles, and on the sides of his red helmet were two small yellow lightning bolt-shaped horns. On the front of the thick piece of crimson armor covering the warrior's upper torso was the symbol of a yellow lightning bolt going through a white circle at an angle. Pieces of thick armor with yellow trim on each end covered the warrior's forearms, and on each of his black hands was a knuckleduster.

"And now I play the Spell card that was a gift from the friend I was talking about before, Smile World!" Yusei announced.

Flying out of the illustration of the card Yusei played were several transparent shapes of different colors. There were yellow cartoon suns, purple circles and blue flowers, each with a bright smiling face. Also flying from the card were several green, purple and yellow five-pointed stars, each with smiling winking faces all of their own. The strange shapes filled the area, making the site of Yugo and Yusei's duel extremely colorful. Suddenly bright cheerful smiles formed on the faces of both Kendama and Junk Speedster.

* * *

Those watching the duel from the stadium were in awe of the effect that Yusei's card had on the field. The same feeling was shared by many watching from the skybox.

"It's so pretty!" Ruka declared.

"I have to say, I never would've expected to see Yusei play a card like that," Crow remarked. "I mean it's a pretty fancy lightshow, but what's the point of it."

"Yusei wouldn't have play that card without a good reason," Jack told him.

* * *

"Thanks to Smile World, each of our monsters gains 100 points for every face-up monster on the field until the end of the turn!" Yusei announced. "Since there are two monsters on the field, the ATK of Junk Speedster goes up from 2300 to 2500!"

"So what? Kendama's ATK goes up from 2200 to 2400," Yugo pointed out. "It doesn't seem like this power-up makes much of a difference."

"It does when you take into account Junk Speedster's effect," Yusei told him. "When Junk Speedster attacks a level five or higher monster, his ATK is doubled during damage calculation! And since Junk Speedster currently has 2500 ATK, his ATK during battle will jump to 5000! Junk Speedster! Attack Kendama! Accel Blitz!"

"Crap!" Yugo cursed as Junk Speedster dashed across the battlefield and became a streak of red light. "I activate my Trap! Trap Hole of Spikes! This card destroys Junk Speedster and deals damage equal to half his original ATK!"

At that moment, Yusei snagged an Action Card at the side of the road. "I activate the Action Card, Divine Denial! This card cancels the effect of your Trap and destroys it!"

A bolt of lightning suddenly came down from above and burnt the large version of Yugo's Trap card to ash. At about the same time, the streak of light that was Junk Speedster became a circle that totally surrounded Kendama. The circle quickly became smaller and smaller. Faster than the eye could make out, Junk Speedster began pummeling Kendama with several fast and deadly accurate punches. In a matter of seconds, several cracks began to form all over Kendama's body.

It was not long before Kendama exploded in a massive fireball that rained debris all over the highway. The attack had caused Yugo's life points to drop to 1400. Yugo seemed left in a state of total shock as Junk Speedster raced back over to Yusei's side.

* * *

The audience back at the stadium was in awe of Yusei's powerful attack against Yugo. After a few moments, the entire stadium was roaring with cheers.

"That was one brutal attack," Crow remarked in the skybox. "Yusei definitely isn't pulling any punches."

"Yugo definitely can't take another hit like that," Matsuri observed. "But it looks like that first one was a little too much for the poor guy to take."

"Don't be so sure," Jack told her. "That attack was probably just the thing Yugo needed to wake up."

* * *

"Yugo? You okay?" Yusei asked.

After a few moments, Yugo's shocked expression suddenly started to change into a smirk. A short burst of laughter then emerged from Yugo's lips.

"Wow Yusei! You really are taking this seriously, aren't you?" Yugo observed.

"That's just the reaction I was hoping to see," Yusei told him. "Looks like you're finally starting to go back to your old self."

"It's funny. After all the battles I've gone through during the war with Iliaster… and especially after Goodwin turned me into his puppet… I forgot how fun duels could be," Yugo realized. "In all my tournament battles, I was so focused on winning that that I lost sight of everything else. I tried beating each opponent I faced as quickly as possible because that was the only way to survive in the war."

"Well, the war is over now," Yusei told him. "Now you can just relax and duel the way you were meant to. You know, I saw the footage of your duel with Jack. Let's see if we can give everyone that same kind of performance and show them what dueling is really about."

"You're on!" Yugo replied. "I'm going to give you everything I've got!"

Yusei smiled and nodded. "I end my turn! And with the end of my turn, the effect of Smile World ends!"

The smiling, glowing transparent shapes that had filled the area suddenly evaporated to nothing.

"Now Yugo… let's push each other to our limits!" Yusei told him.

"You got it!" Yugo responded as he drew his next card. "I summon Speedroid Double Yoyo in Attack Mode!"

Yugo's green two-wheeled RC robot appeared on the highway next to his D-Wheel.

"Using Double Yoyo's effect, I summon Den-Den Daiko Duke back from the Graveyard!" Yugo announced.

On cue, Den-Den Daiko Duke reappeared on the highway next to Double Yoyo.

"I tune the level three Den-Den Daiko Duke into the level four Double Yoyo for a level seven Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Den-Den Daiko Duke played his drum again a few times before changing into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Double Yoyo and transformed it into four white stars.

"Spread those wondrous and beautiful wings and strike down your enemies at the speed of light!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Appear now! Level seven! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a ray of white light that shot down the highway and expanded outward. Moments later the light faded and Yugo's cybernetic dragon emerged with a roar.

"I'm not done yet!" Yugo declared. "I banish Den-Den Daiko Duke from the Graveyard to special summon Speedroid Red-Eyed Dice from my hand!"

The large golden die appeared on the battlefield next to Clear Wing.

"I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level seven Clear Wing for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Yugo announced.

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange before changing into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Clear Wing and transformed the dragon into seven white stars.

"Shine the wings that store the holy light and strike down your enemies with its radiance!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth! Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became another ray of white light that shot down the highway and expanded outward. Yugo's dragon emerged from the light in his evolved form and let out another roar.

"When Crystal Wing battles a level five or higher monster, he gains that monster's ATK during the battle!" Yugo announced. "Crystal Wing! Attack Junk Speedster! Krystallos Gale Edge!"

Crystal Wing took off into the air like a missile, leaving a trail of white light in his wake. When it got high enough into the sky, the streak of light turned and came down towards Junk Speedster. Junk Speedster took a stance to try and perform some sort of counter attack, but Crystal Wing crashed into the speed warrior like a meteor and destroyed him in a fiery explosion. Yusei's life points dropped from 4000 to 1000 in an instant. With his work done, Crystal Wing flew back over to Yugo's side.

"When Junk Speedster is destroyed, his effect lets me summon a level two or lower monster from my Graveyard!" Yusei announced. "I summon Turtle Racer back from the Graveyard!"

With a flash of red light, the small turtle-like car reappeared next to Yusei's D-Wheel.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yugo announced.

* * *

 _"And it looks like the tables might've turned, ladies and gentlemen!"_ the hologram of Carly announced back at the stadium. _"How will our champion, Yusei overcome the power of the legendary Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon?"_

"Now Yusei's the one on the defensive," Ruka observed in the skybox. "I'm not sure there's anything he and do to take down a monster like Crystal Wing."

"Don't be so sure," Jack told her. "Crystal Wing alone won't be enough to defeat a duelist of Yusei's caliber."

"He's right," Rin agreed. "Yusei is one of the best duelists Yugo and I know. I'm sure he has some kind of counter strategy for Crystal Wing up his sleeve."

* * *

After Yusei drew his next card, he spotted an Action Card up ahead on the highway and grabbed it. Looking at the card, he smiled.

"This card couldn't have come at a better time," Yusei declared. "Yugo, if we're really going to push each other to our limits, the hands we have now aren't going to cut it. So I'm not activating the Action Card, Draw Fortune! Now both of us get to draw three new cards!"

"Pretty generous of you," Yugo remarked as he drew three more cards. "You're kind of taking a risk here though. For all you know, I may have just drawn the one key card I need to beat you."

"Risk is all part of what makes this fun," Yusei told him. "I discard one card from my hand to special summon the Tuner monster, Jackie Jumper!"

Materializing next to turtle racer was a small somewhat humanoid robot wearing a sort of blue overcoat decorated with light-blue arrows. Its feet were a pair of long narrow skis, and the top of his helmet had long spikes that almost resembled hair.

"Since I now have a Tuner monster on the field, I can summon the monster I just discarded from the Graveyard!" Yusei announced. "Quillbolt Hedgehog!"

Appearing next to Yusei's two other monsters was a hedgehog-like creature with light-brown fur. Sticking out of its back was a mass of large dark-grey bolts.

"I now activate Turtle Racer's effect!" Yusei announced. "When I have a Tuner on the field, I can discard a card from my hand to raise Turtle Racer's level from two to three until the end of the turn!"

Suddenly the side doors of Turtle Racer rose open, and two large jet engines emerged. The engines fired up, leaving plumes of blue and orange flames as the small card sped up slightly.

"I tune the level three Jackie Jumper into the level three Turtle Racer and the level two Quillbolt Hedghog!" Yusei announced.

Jackie Jumper flashed orange and changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Yusei's other two monsters and transformed them into five white stars.

"Clustering wishes will revive the shining star of hope! Become the path its light shines upon!" Yusei chanted. "Synchro Summon! Take flight, Quick-Cyber Stardust Dragon!"

The stars flashed and became a blinding ray of white light that shot down the highway. In seconds the light cleared, and flying alongside Yusei was a battle-scarred silvery-white dragon with large magnificent wings. Its head ended in a three-pointed crest with glowing blue scars on it, and at the end of its snout was a long horn. A piece of grey metal covered the left side of the dragon's face, and on it was a yellow line that ran down the dragon's cheek similar to the one on Yusei's face. The dragon's left arm was totally mechanical and had a hand with long bladed claws, and a piece of grey armored covered the left side of its chest while the right side had two long glowing blue scars. The bottom edges of the dragon's large magnificent wings glowed blue like the scars on the scars on the rest of its body. The dragon's right knee was totally mechanical, and it had a section of grey armor on the middle part of its tail.

Stardust Dragon roared as he flapped his wings and scattered sparkling green lights over the battlefield. Crystal Wing roared in response, and the dragon mark on Yugo's back began to glow.

"Wow Yusei! Your dragon amazes me every time I see it," Yugo declared. "But I'm afraid he's not strong enough to beat Crystal Wing."

"We'll see about that," Yusei told him. "I activate the Spell card, Synchron Reincarnation! With this card, I can return a level three or lower Synchron Tuner monster from the Graveyard to my hand! I use this effect to bring Junk Synchron back to my hand! Now I summon Junk Synchron to the field in Attack Mode!"

On cue, Junk Synchron Reappeared on the battlefield next to Stardust Dragon.

"Using Junk Synchron's effect, I bring Turtle Racer back from the Graveyard!" Yusei announced.

Turtle Racer reappeared on the highway next to Junk Synchron.

"I tune the level three Junk Synchron into the level two Turtle Racer for a level five Synchro Summon!" Yusei announced.

Junk Synchron pulled the ripcord on his chest, causing the engine on his back to fire up before he changed into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Turtle Racer and transformed the car into two white stars.

"Clustering hopes will become the bullet that pierces through the darkness! Create the path its light shines upon!" Yusei chanted. "Synchro Summon! Fire! Junk Sniper!"

The stars flashed and became a ray red of light that shot down the highway and expanded outward, fading away moments later to reveal a mechanical-looking warrior clad in dark-brown and grey armor. He had on a tattered black cloak and hood, and a white skull-like metal face with a large red mechanical eye in the center. Painted on the front of the brown armor covering his chest was a white skull. Around the warrior's waist was a black leather belt with a gold buckle also in the shape of a skull, and a holster with a black futuristic pistol. His upper arms and legs were wrapped in white bandages, and in his right hand he held a large sniper rifle made of a dark grey metal.

"I activate Junk Sniper's effect!" Yusei announced. "By banishing a level two or lower monster from the Graveyard, Junk Sniper can destroy a level five or higher monster my opponent controls! I banish Turtle Racer to destroy Crystal Wing!"

A ghostly version of Turtle Racer appeared in the air and turned into a ball of golden light that went into Junk Sniper's rifle. The cybernetic gunman took aim at Crystal Wing and opened fire, sending a golden energy projectile at the dragon.

"You should no better than that, Yusei! I activate Crystal Wing's effect to negate Junk Sniper's effect and destroy it!" Yugo announced.

Crystal Wing roared and fired a blinding blast of white light from his crystalline wings. The blast totally engulfed the bullet and kept on coming towards Junk Sniper.

"I activate Stardust Dragon's effect!" Yusei announced. "By sacrificing Stardust when a card on the field would be destroyed by a card effect, I can negate that effect and destroy that card!"

Stardust Dragon roared and flew straight into the blast of light, pushing it back as he flew towards Crystal Wing. Soon both dragons collided into one another, creating a blinding explosion of white light. When the light faded, both dragons had vanished from the battlefield.

* * *

 _"What a stunning upset, ladies and gentlemen!"_ the hologram of Carly announced as the audience in the stadium cheered. _"Yusei Fudo has just destroyed Yugo Sakaki's dragon and left him wide open for a direct attack! Will this be the end?"_

"Well, guess that's all she wrote," Crow assumed. "Junk Sniper's 2400 ATK is more than enough to finish off Yugo. He put up a good fight though."

"No. It's not over yet," Rin told him. "There's no way Yugo would be taken down so easily."

* * *

"Guess it's time to end this!" Yusei decided. "Junk Sniper, attack Yugo directly! Scrapyard Bullet!"

Junk Sniper took aim at Yugo with his rifle. Just as the cybernetic gunman was about to open fire though, a pillar of white light suddenly burst up from the ground beneath him. Junk Sniper was totally enveloped in the light. When it cleared, the gunman was gone and Crystal Wing had appeared in his place with a loud roar.

Yusei blinked in surprised. "What happened just now?"

"I activated my Trap, Synchro Dragon Rising!" Yugo explained. "When I would take a direct attack, this Trap negates that attack destroys the monster, and lets me summon a level eight or lower Synchro Dragon from my Graveyard!

Yusei smirked. "Pretty good, Yugo. I was actually hoping that this wouldn't end there. I'll set a card on the field and end my turn! And now that my turn is ending, Stardust returns to the field!"

Particles of green stardust suddenly came together and formed into Yusei's dragon. Quick-Cyber Stardust Dragon roared at Yugo's dragon, causing Crystal Wing to roar back.

"Get ready, Yugo," Yusei told him. "This is where the real duel begins."

A large grin formed on Yugo's face. "Bring it on!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment of Yugo and Yusei's duel, and the new cards that I came up with for Yusei. Before anyone asks, yes, Junk Speedster is based on the Flash. I got the idea for that card when I figured out the whole scene where Yusei saved Aki from that piece of Seibal that came down from space. Junk Sniper on the other hand ended up being based partly on Death Gun from the Phantom Bullet arc of _Sword Art Online_ , and I guess I took his whole skull motif from the Punisher. Turtle Racer, I'm not really sure how I came up with that card... I was just trying really hard to come up with a new low-level monster that Yusei could use as a wall and Synchro Material, and that's what I came up with.

Quick-Cyber Stardust Dragon was a really difficult card to come up with. My friend, Firebolt the Blazing Saint and I sort of threw back ideas at one another trying to come up with something. The name was a toughest part. Quick-Cyber of course is a play on the word, quicksilver. Before, Firebolt and I had come up with the name, Cyver Stardust Dragon (Cyver being a combination of cyber and silver), but at the very last second I decided that the name wasn't all that great, so I came up with Quick-Cyber instead. I wanted this version of Stardust Dragon to be old and battle-scarred to compliment Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend, and decided that it should also be a cyborg to reflect Yusei's skill with machines.

As for Quick-Cyber's effect, that was also really tough, and I'm sorry that I couldn't come up with anything more original than giving it the effect of the original Stardust Dragon. Quick-Cyber does have another effect that you'll see in the next chapter, but in the end I just couldn't come up with a new effect that could top that of the original Stardust Dragon's. When Konami came up with Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend, they had a lot of room to improve upon the original version. But Stardust Dragon is still probably one of the best Synchro Monsters in this game (maybe more so, since it's effect can sort of get around the recent Extra Monster Zone rule), so trying to come up with a better version of that is like trying to reinvent the wheel. Plus that effect was the best way I could come up with for countering the effects of Clear Wing and Crystal Wing.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	45. Kings of Speed

**Author's Note:** I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for their reviews of the previous chapter. I'm glad that everyone seemed to like the new version of Stardust Dragon I came up with. So now, without further delay, I bring you all the final chapter of this story!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.

* * *

Chapter 45: Kings of Speed

 _"What a mind-blowing turn of events we're seeing here, ladies and gentlemen!"_ Carly announced as the audience back in the stadium. _"Just when it seemed like our champion, Yusei Fudo was finally going to wrap things up, Yugo Sakaki has turned the tables again! This could be anyone's match!"_

"Boy! I'm on the edge of my seat here," Crow declared up in the skybox. "It's been a really long time since I've seen a duel like this. I almost forgot what this kind of excitement felt like."

"Me too," Rin agreed. "We've fought a war using duels for so long that I had nearly forgotten myself that they could be fun. This is why Yusei challenged Yugo, isn't it? To remind him of this."

"Not just Yugo, but you too, Rin," Aki told her. "This duel is for everyone in this city."

"What I'd like to know is, who's going to win this thing?" Shinji asked.

"It's hard to say. They're both dueling at such a high level," Crow pointed out. "Of course my money would have to be on Yusei. After all, he's the one who's more experienced."

"No. Yusei may have more experience, but I'm sure Yugo can find a way to win," Rin declared.

* * *

Yugo drew his next card. "Crystal Wing! Attack Stardust Dragon! Krystallos Gale Edge!"

Crystal Wing roared as he flew high into the sky, leaving a trail of white light in his wake. When he reached the maximum altitude for his attack, the cybernetic dragon came back towards his rival at high speed.

"In case you didn't know, Quick-Cyber Stardust Dragon can't be destroyed in battle up to twice per turn!" Yusei announced.

"Maybe, but you'll still take the battle damage!" Yugo pointed out. "Plus Crystal Wing takes on the ATK of any level five or higher monster he's battling! And since you have so few life points left, this attack should finish you!"

"Think again! I activate my Trap, Nutrient Z!" Yusei announced. "When I would take 2000 or more points of battle damage, Nutrient Z boost my life points by 4000 before I get hit!"

Yusei's life points rose from 1000 to 4000 in an instant. A second later, Crystal Wing collided into Stardust Dragon, creating a massive explosion of white light. Yusei's life points had taken a steep drop to 2000. When the light faded, Crystal Wing and Stardust Dragon were grappling with one another. Eventually, Stardust Dragon slammed his tail into Crystal Wing's side, pushing the other dragon away. Crystal Wing responded with another loud roar.

"I end my turn!" Yugo announced.

Yusei drew his next card. "I activate the Spell card, Junkyard Blessings! By banishing up to three Junk Synchro Monsters from my Graveyard, I can draw the same number of cards from my deck. I banish Junk Speedster and Junk Sniper to draw three cards! Now I activate Return from a Distant Star! By discarding one card and paying half my life points and discarding a card from my hand, I can summon as many of my banished Synchro Monsters as possible! Return! Junk Speedster and Junk Sniper!"

As Yusei's life points dropped to 1000, two balls of white light almost like comets came down from above and struck the road near Yusei's D-Wheel. The lights faded, and both Junk Sniper and Junk Speedster had reappeared on the field.

"Monsters that are summoned using Return from a Distant Star have their ATK and DEF reduced to zero and their level reduced by three," Yusei announced. "I set one card on the field and end my turn!"

"Yusei… are you…?" Yugo began to ask.

Yusei smirked. "I think you know where I'm going with this. Now let's take this to the next level!"

Yugo smiled and nodded. "You got it!"

* * *

The audience members back in the stadium were either cheering or talking amongst themselves trying to figure out the reasons behind Yugo's last move. Rin and most of the others up in the skybox seemed to be just as confused.

"I don't get it. What was the point of Yusei summoning those other monsters?" Crow asked. "And with zero ATK as well?"

"It's not the ATK of those monsters that matters right now, but their levels," Bruno told them. "Both of them have been reduced to level two. The other important thing is that Junk Speedster is also a Tuner."

"Yusei's going to perform an Accel Synchro Summon," Jack realized.

"Actually, he's going to go one level beyond that," Bruno told them.

"Delta Accel," Rin realized. "I had no idea Yusei could use a summoning method like that."

"I had shown Yusei how to perform the basic level of Accel Synchro before he faced Rex Goodwin, like I had done with Yugo," Bruno revealed. "But I never anticipated that like Yugo, Yusei would figure out how to perform Delta Accel on his own. The two of them have such a natural talent for Synchro Summoning."

"Which makes this match even harder to predict," Sherry remarked. "Those two really are in a league of their own."

"For now," Jack told them. "But one day soon, I will surpass them both!"

* * *

Yugo drew his next card. "First I activate Speed Recover and summon Kendama back from the Graveyard!"

Kendama reappeared on the highway to fly alongside Crystal Wing.

"And now, using the Scale 3 Speedroid Passinglider and the Scale 8 Speedroid Dominobutterfly, I now set the Pendulum Scale!" Yugo announced.

Once Yugo placed the two cards in question at the far edges of his duel disk blade, the word, "Pendulum" flashed across in multicolored letters. Two tubes of ethereal blue light appeared to Yugo's left and right. Passinglider appeared inside the tube on Yugo's right, while Dominobutterfly materialized inside the tube on Yugo's left.

"Well, that's totally unexpected," Yusei declared. "Where'd you get the Pendulum Monsters?"

Yugo blushed and began rubbing the back of his head. "Well, uh… you know, that's not really important, is it? Let's just focus on the duel, okay Yusei?"

"Alright," Yusei replied with a shrug.

* * *

 _"So, we get to see some Pendulum Monsters from Yugo Sakaki,"_ Carly's hologram observed back at the stadium. _"That was certainly an unexpected twist, especially for me since I know most of the story behind that type of card."_

"What the heck? How is it that Yugo can Pendulum Summon?" a stunned Sherry asked. "He shouldn't be able to do that unless he's descended from Anunnaki royalty like Rin and I are!"

"Indeed. I can't understand how this could've happened," Bruno responded.

"Hey Rin, do you know anything about these Pendulum Monsters of Yugo's?" Crow asked.

"No!" Rin responded as her face turned a deep shade of red. "And even if I did, it's none of your business!"

"Uh… okay?" Crow responded with a raised eyebrow.

* * *

"I activate Dominobutterfly's Pendulum Effect!" Yugo announced. "By discarding a Wind monster, I can return one of my banished Wind monsters to the hand! I discard Speedroid Menko to get back Den-Den Daiko Duke! Next I activate Passinglider's Pendulum Effect! By discarding a Speedroid Tuner from my hand, I can lower Passinglider's Pendlum Scale by an amount equal to that monster's level! I discard Den-Den Daiko Duke to lower Passinglider's Scale by three!"

On cue, an orange number three appeared beneath Passinglider's tube and ticked down to zero.

"With the Pendulum Scale set at zero and eight, I can simultaneously summon monsters from levels one to seven!" Yugo announced.

An orange number eight appeared underneath Dominobutterfly while the number zero from before remained under Passinglider. A giant crystal pendulum appeared in the sky above and began to draw a circle of light.

"Sway! Pendulum of souls!" Yugo chanted. "Draw an arc of light across the either! Pendulum Summon!"

The circle of light drawn by the pendulum opened up into a hole, and shooting down out of it towards the highway was a ball of red light followed closely by a ball of yellow light.

The high-speed cobalt assault racer!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Pachingo-Kart!"

The ball of red light struck the pavement and faded away to reveal Pachingo-Kart.

"The flying boomerang of justice!" Yugo called out. "Speedroid Razorang!"

The ball of yellow light struck the highway and faded away to reveal Razorang.

* * *

"I don't get it. If Yugo was just going to summon those two monsters, why did he lower Passinglider's Pendulum Scale like that?" Crow asked back in the skybox. "I mean with Passinglider's scale at three, he still could've Pendulum Summoned those two because they're level four, right?"

"He didn't use Passinglider's effect just to make it easier to Pendulum Summon," Rin told him. "There's another reason for why he did that."

* * *

"I see. You used the Pendulum Effects of those two monsters so you could put Den-Den Daiko Duke back in the Graveyard," Yusei deduced.

"That's right!" Yugo confirmed. "And now I banish Den-Den Daiko Duke from the Graveyard to summon Red-Eyed Dice back to the field!"

On cue, Red-Eyed Dice rematerialized on the battlefield next to Pachingo-Kart.

"Because Red-Eyed Dice was just summoned, I use its effect to change Pachingo-Kart's level from four to one!" Yugo announced. "I tune the level one Red-Eyed Dice into the level one Pachingo-Kart for a level two Synchro Summon!"

Red-Eyed Dice flashed orange and changed into a single ring of green light. The ring encircled Pachingo-Kart and transformed the assault racer into a single white star.

"Winds of divine chance gather here and now! Call forth the possibilities of a new speed's horizon!" Yugo chanted. "Synchro Summon! Level two! Hi-Speedroid Ten-Eyed Dice!"

The stars flashed and became a horizontal ray of white light that shot down the track and expanded outward. In moments the light faded to reveal Yugo's red metal ten-sided die.

"I activate the effect of Ten-Eyed Dice and change Crystal Wing's level from eight to four until the end of my opponent's next turn!" Yugo announced.

"Well Yugo, let's give the people a show they'll never forget," Yusei told him.

"Ready when you are," Yugo replied.

With that, both of them closed their eyes and revved their engines. In seconds the two of them began to pick up speed.

"Heavenly Dragon of royal blood! Take to the sky on crimson wings and ascend to your heavenly throne!" Yugo began to chant.

"Clustering crystal dreams open the door to a power beyond speed! Become the path its light shines upon!" Yusei chanted at the same time.

"Delta Accel!" the two of them called out together.

Suddenly both Yugo and Yusei became enshrouded in pinkish red energy with their respective monsters as they took off down the road. In those few seconds, Ten-Eyed Dice transformed into two green rings of light that encircled Crystal Wing and Kendama, while Junk Speedster changed into two green rings of light that encircled Stardust Dragon and Junk Sniper. The duelists and their monsters vanished, and as they did, they created an explosion of white light in their wake.

* * *

The screen at the stadium showing the action had gone to static just after the explosion. All of the audience members were trying to figure out what had happened.

 _"Uh… don't panic, folks!"_ Carly told them. _"I'm sure this is just a minor technical difficulty that will be straightened out in just a moment."_

Only a second after Carly said those words, the screen returned to normal but showed nothing but an empty highway bridge. Suddenly in the distance they saw two streaks of light appeared on the road. Yugo burst out of one of the streaks with Crimson Wing flying behind him, along with his two Pendulum Monsters and Razorang still at his side. Yugo had also taken on the same form that he had taken the first time he had summoned the supreme form of his dragon.

 _"Roar! King of all Synchro Monsters!"_ Yugo called out. _"Crimson Wing Synchro Dragon!"_

As Crimson Wing let out a roar that echoed through the area, Yusei emerged from his streak of light with Stardust Dragon flying after him in a brand new form. The dragon had become just as large as Crimson Wing and had lost his scars and cybernetics. He had become almost totally white, with his neck having a scaly green underside that went down to the middle of his chest. The dragon's chest had four large blue orbs, and growing from his waist were two long white spikes. The horn on the dragon's snout had grown short, and he had a long scaly grey tail with a white double-sided axe blade at the end with a blue gemstone fitted into the top.

 _"Be born!"_ Yusei called out. _"Cosmic Blazar Dragon!"_

Cosmic Blazar Dragon roared at the announcement of his new name. Crimson Wing roared back in response.

"So that's… Yusei's Delta Accel monster," an amazed Crow spoke.

"He didn't use that monster against me," Jack remarked. "The nerve of him holding back."

"Yugo's dragon is just as amazing," Rua spoke. "And they both have 4000 ATK. I don't know which of them will win."

"In the end, this battle will come down to the effects of each dragon," Bruno remarked. "What happens now could decide the whole duel."

* * *

"I activate Razorang's effect!" Yugo announced. "By switching Razorang to Defense Mode, I can lower the ATK of one monster on the field by 800 points!"

"I see. So your plan is to make my dragon weaker," Yusei assumed.

"I'm not thinking that small!" Yugo told him. "I'm using this effect on Crimson Wing! But now I'm also activating Crimson Wing's effect! During either player's turn, Crimson Wing can negate the activation of a monster effect and destroy all other monsters on the field! Dragon Star Sanction!"

"Then in that case, I activate Cosmic Blazar Dragon's effect!" Yusei announced. "By banishing Cosmic Blazar Dragon from the field, I can negate the activation of an opponent's card effect and destroy it! I use this effect to take down Crimson Wing!"

Yugo looked around and spotted an Action Card by the side of the road. Without a moment to lose, he sped up and grabbed the card.

"I activate the Action Card, System Error!" Yugo announced. "This card cancels Cosmic Blazar Dragon's effect!"

"Sorry, but I activate my Trap, Absolute Stardust!" Yusei announced. "When my opponent activates a Spell or Trap card in response to the activation of a Dragon-Type Synchro Monster's effect, Absolute Stardust negates that effect and destroys the card!"

A bolt of lightning came down and destroyed the large version of Yugo's Action Card, burning it to ash. Meanwhile, the gem in Crimson Wing's chest lit up to counter Razorang's effect. Before the dragon could fire a shot though, Cosmic Blazar Dragon flew into his rival at top speed, causing a blinding explosion of white light. When the light faded, only Razorang was left on the field.

"Guess that does it for your strongest monster," Yusei assumed.

"That's what you think!" Yugo told him.

Suddenly Dominobutterfly shattered into particles of gold light, and its tube expanded outward and turned red. A second later, Crimson Wing appeared inside the tube with a flash of red light. A glowing orange number twelve appeared beneath the dragon.

"I see… so Crimson Wing is also a Pendulum Monster," Yusei realized.

"That's right!" Yugo confirmed. "When Crimson Wing is destroyed by a card effect, I can destroy the card in my Pendulum Zone with the highest scale and put Crimson Wing in its place! I'll end my turn here!"

"Fine, but you know what that means," Yusei told him. "Cosmic Blazar Dragon returns to the field!"

Glowing white particles of stardust suddenly came together behind Yusei's D-Wheel and took the form of Cosmic Blazar Dragon. Yusei's dragon let out a roar, causing Crimson Wing to snarl inside his tube.

* * *

"This isn't looking good for Yugo," Crow declared back in the skybox. "Yusei now has him totally outgunned."

"At least he still has Razorang on the field as a shield, since Crimson Wing's effect failed to destroy it," Matsuri pointed out.

"True. But that shield isn't going to last more than an instant against Yusei's dragon," Jack told her. "Unless Yugo does something soon, he'll be finished."

* * *

Yusei drew his next card. "Cosmic Blazar Dragon! Attack Razorang! Galactic Spiral Stream!"

As Cosmic Blazar Dragon opened his jaws to attack, Yugo spotted a pair of Action Cards in the road up ahead. Yusei spotted the cards as well, and the two of them sped up to grab them. In practically the exact same instant, they both managed to grab one.

"I activate the Action Card, Evasion!" Yugo announced. "This card cancels Cosmic Blazar Dragon's attack!"

"Not so fast! I activate my own Action Card, No Action!" Yusei announced. "This card cancels out Evasion's effect!"

As Yugo's Action Card shattered into particles of gold light, Cosmic Blazar Dragon fired a powerful stream of sparkling multicolored light down at Razorang. Razorang was vaporized in an instant upon being hit.

"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Yusei announced. "Well, it looks like we may have reached this duel's limit. You put up a good fight, Yugo."

"I'm not done yet!" Yugo declared. "As long as I've still got cards to draw, I'm not giving up! My move!"

As Yugo pulled the next card from his deck, the card flashed briefly with a crimson light. A small gust of wind also radiated out from Yugo's D-Wheel.

"I activate the Spell card, Graveyard Pendulum!" Yugo announced. "With this card, I can summon a monster from my Graveyard with a level between the scales of my two Pendulum Monsters! With the scale set at three and twelve, I use Graveyard Pendulum to bring back the level eight, Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!"

Once again, a giant crystal pendulum appeared in the sky above and began drawing a circle of blue light. At the same time though, a circle of red light appeared on the ground right underneath the pendulum.

"In that case, I activate Cosmic Blazar Dragon's effect to banish him from the field in order to negate Crystal Wing's summoning!" Yusei announced.

"Big mistake! I activate Crimson Wing's Pendulum Effect!" Yugo announced. "During either player's turn, Crimson Wing can negate the activation of an opponent's monster effect and destroy it!"

Just as Cosmic Blazar Dragon began to fly towards the circle being drawn on the ground, Crimson Wing opened his jaws and fired a beam of red light down at the rival dragon. Cosmic Blazer Dragon was struck in the back and shattered into particles of red light. Soon after the circle on the ground became a portal of red light and Crystal Wing flew up out of it with a roar.

"In that case, I activate my Trap! Phoenix Stardust!" Yusei announced. "When a Dragon-Type Synchro Monster is destroyed by a card effect, Phoenix Stardust lets me summon Stardust Dragon from the Graveyard!"

Particles of green stardust suddenly came together beside Yusei's D-Wheel and reassembled into Quick-Cyber Stardust Dragon. Both Crystal Wing and Stardust Dragon roared at one another. As the two duelists came near another intersection, they saw that the road off to the right was closed because the bridge was out, but at the other side of the divide were two more Action Cards.

"Well Yugo? Why don't we give this duel a big finish?" Yusei suggested.

"I'm game if you are!" Yugo replied. "Crystal Wing! Attack Stardust Dragon and end this! Crystallos Gale Edge!"

Crystal Wing ascended into the sky again, leaving a trail of white light in his wake. When he reached the maximum altitude for his attack, the cybernetic dragon came down at full speed towards his rival. At the same time, Yusei and Yugo burst through the barricades blocking off the broken section of road. The two of the jumped over the divide, and for several pulse pounding seconds they were in flight. Both of them just barely made it to the other side of the bridge.

Yusei was the first to grab one of the Action Cards. "I activate the Action Card, Evasion! This card cancels Crystal Wing's attack!"

Yugo quickly grabbed the other card. "I activate the Action Card, No Action! This card cancels Evasion's effect!"

Yusei's Action Card shattered into particles of light. Soon after, Crystal Wing collided into Stardust Dragon, creating a massive explosion of light. When the light faded, Crystal Wing and Stardust were grappling with one another again, but Yusei's life points had still fallen to zero. With the duel finally at an end, the monsters that were still on the field vanished, and Yugo returned to his normal form.

* * *

 _"The duel is now over!"_ Carly announced. _"And the winner and our city's new champion is… Yugo Sakaki!"_

The audience cheered with excitement at the declaration of their new champion. The mood of the audience was shared in the skybox.

"Damn! That was one hell of a duel!" Crow declared. "And Yugo's grown into quite the duelist."

"I knew Yugo could do it," a smiling Rin declared.

* * *

Yugo and Yusei both dismounted their D-Wheels and removed their helmets. The two of them then went over to one another and shook hands.

"You've really come a long way from that kid I once knew, Yugo," Yusei told him. "If anyone deserves to be this city's champion, it's you."

"Thanks," Yugo replied. "And not just for the compliment or this duel. You reminded me of something very important that I was losing sight of. This time, I'll never forget it."

"I'm sure you won't," Yusei responded.

"And hey, if you ever want a shot at being the city's champion again, you know where to find me," Yugo told him. "I'll be more than happy to take you on again."

"I may just do that one day," Yusei replied.

* * *

Yugo was out leaning against the railing on the balcony of his house, looking out at the city. The sun had almost totally set, and most of the lights in the city had started to turn on. There had been much on Yugo's mind every since the end of his duel with Yusei, and he had come out to the balcony to try and sort it all out. Eventually Rin came out onto the balcony as well and went over to join him.

"So, how's it feel to be champion?" Rin asked as she leaned against the balcony.

"Pretty good, I guess," Yugo answered.

"You've been pretty quiet ever since we got home," Rin noted. "Anything wrong?"

"No. Just thinking about my future," Yugo answered. "You know… that duel with Yusei did more than just remind me of how fun and exciting duels could be. Ever since we brought down Iliaster and got this house up in the Tops, I've been trying to figure out what my next goal should be."

"I've wondered about that a lot too," Rin admitted. "What does a person do when they've achieved all their dreams?"

"Well, I think I may have an idea about that," Yugo told her. "That duel Yusei and I had didn't just helped to remind me about how wonderful duels could be, they reminded everyone else in the city about it too. There are a lot of other people around the world who could also learn that." He turned to look her directly in the eye. "Rin, I want to use my dueling to somehow help bring joy to everyone around the world, and I want you to help me."

Rin turned to fully face him and smiled. "You know I will. We'll do it together."

"You know, I keep thinking about what your dad said about us being the people to help lead this world into a bright future," Yugo recalled. "Maybe this is how we can do that."

"I'm willing to give it a try if you are," Rin replied. "You and I have always done everything together. Wherever you go Yugo, I'll always be by your side."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Yugo told her. "Because the fact is, I'm not sure I can do a lot of the stuff I do without you."

The two of them looked deeply into one another's eyes for several moments before moving in and sharing a deep passionate kiss. When they broke for air, they looked back out over the city with their hands clasped together. Neither of them knew exactly where they or the rest of the world were headed, but they were going to create the path that the light would shine upon.

THE END

* * *

 **Afterward:** Well, it's been a very long road getting to this point, but at last this story has come to an end. Yugo and Rin were a big part of the reason why I became so obsessed with the ARC-V anime for the past couple of year, and after the way those two characters got shafted by that anime's terrible, terrible ending, I felt that it was even more important that those two got a story of their own, even if that story was just a humble fanfic. I said at the very beginning that this story was a passion project of mine, and it really was. For the past year this project has been almost all-consuming for me, even though I did take a brief break from writing it during the summer, but that was due mainly to writer's block regarding that short arc with Jaeger and Sergey and some difficulties in my personal life at that time. There may have been a few bumps in the road, but I was determined to see this story finished one way or another.

I'd now like to take a moment to once again thank my friend on this site, Firebolt the Blazing Saint. I don't think some of the duels in this story could've been as good as they were without the awesome cards he came up with for Yugo and Rin to use. I'd also like to thank DragonKnight15. He and I may have had some differences recently over the summer, but the fact is this story probably never would've gotten off the ground without his help. Lastly, I'd also like to thank everyone who read this story.

So in some of the more recent reviews for this epic, I've gotten the question of whether or not I'd do a sequel to it. Originally this was going to be just a standalone project, but things sort of changed over the course of writing this story. I do have some ideas for at least two sequels to this story as well as a few tie-in stories or "spinoffs", if you will. But they're all pretty rough right now, so right I don't know when they might be put up. So keep your eyes peeled, everyone. Yugo and Rin may be back in another adventure I've written for them.

Please review and let me know what you think.


End file.
